AG: Reform committee to provide long-term fixes in justice system

The soon-to-be established Criminal Justice Reform Committee is expected to make Barbados’ overburdened judicial system more efficient, says Attorney General Dale Marshall.

Speaking to the media on Monday at the Hilton Barbados as deliberations in the second Criminal Justice Symposium continued into the evening, Marshall said one of the major deliverables is the establishment of the committee which will monitor the implementation of decisions coming out of this symposium and the first one held earlier in April.

“In addition to the committee being set up to oversee the entire process of criminal justice reform, we expect to be able to come away with some decisions on important legislative items that we want to enact,” said the AG who expects to co-chair the committee with Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham.

“The kind of things that are currently being considered by the committee would be such things as judge-alone trials, amendments to the Evidence Act, and amendments to the Juries Act.”

Marshall stressed that the committee would go beyond just clearing the backlog of criminal cases and would be part of the landscape of Barbados’ justice system for years to come.

“It is a committee that is being set up for the foreseeable future. This is not going to be a committee with a life of one year or two years or three years, because there will always be a need for criminal justice reform.

“Hopefully, we will lick the backlog problem. But then there are going to be other issues that will arise. Sometimes it may just be a question of efficiency. We may shift our focus from the courts to the police at another time. So I don’t see an end to the life of this committee. I think that how the criminal justice system works, it is something that always has to be under review. So certainly, for as long as I am in this office, I expect to see that committee working. I can’t speak for who comes after me,” he added.

Marshall said the composition of the rest of the committee is yet to be determined.

(JB) ]]>