Even as he called the blaming of magistrates for the overcrowding in the prison system unfair, acting Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Carl Singh yesterday urged judicial officers to take into consideration all circumstances before making a decision on bail.
Justice Singh was making remarks during the opening ceremony of the Justice Education Society (JES) ‘Seminar on Trial Management in the Magistrates Court: Canadian and Guyanese Perspectives.’ The two-event is being held at the Georgetown Club and focuses largely on addressing the backlog in the Magistrate’s Court system.
He made direct reference to the prison unrest in March, which resulted in the deaths of 17 prisoners and also left both prisoners and prison wardens nursing injuries, and he noted that one of the reasons for this was the issue of overcrowding.