Judge slams delays in prisoner transport to court

Justice Pamela Beckles has sharply criticised ongoing delays in court proceedings caused by the late arrival of prisoners from Dodds prison.

When the No. 5 Supreme Court convened at approximately 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the High Court judge questioned the delay. Acting Senior State Counsel Maya Kellman explained that the court had been awaiting the accused’s arrival from prison.

Justice Beckles noted that the problem had persisted “for a while” and called for the “powers that be” to deal with it:

“Right now the courts down below are awaiting prisoners as well. For a while now we have had to wait. It used to be 10 minutes, then it went to half an hour, now it is over an hour for the prison van to get prisoners here on time and they have only just arrived. That is not acceptable and something has to be done! The other complex has not even seen prisoners as yet.

“If it gets out there hopefully the powers that be will do what they have to do, but this is not acceptable that at 11 o’ clock we are now starting and persons have been here since 9:30 a.m.”

(JB)