Justice Delays Costly

Prisoners on remand are costing Saint Lucia millions of dollars per year. This underscores one of the biggest problems inherent in the justice system in Saint Lucia, which is the delay in securing justice in the court system.
Attorney General Dr. Nicholas Frederick made this point in the senate as he attempted to explain the reason behind amendments to the District Court and the Criminal Code bills that went through all their stages at that sitting.
“When I assumed duties as Minister for Justice last year I was shocked to learn there were criminal cases before the magistrate pending since 1997 and these cases have not yet reached the High Court,” Frederick said.
The preliminary inquiries magistrates had to go through to determine whether a serious criminal case could be remitted to the High Court, which takes a great deal of time, and the taking down of testimonies of witnesses plus collecting evidence in the case along with magistrates having to go through an elaborate process of committing everything to writing, which then have to be typed before forwarding the massive documentation to the High Court for trial were seen by Frederick as the reasons for justice being delayed in the magistrate courts.

“As you could well be aware all of this causes a great deal of time to elapse and causes great delays in the system. Meanwhile the accused persons are remanded in prison waiting their day in the High Court.
“Think of the cost to the tax payers of maintaining these prisoners at Bordelais year after year,” Frederick said.
The island’s attorney general declared that the monthly cost of keeping the 165 persons who are on remand at Bordelais borders on $196,000.
“For the year I think that translates to $2.3 million,” Frederick said.
“When we delay justice think of the cost to the tax payers,” Frederick said, adding that the amendments to the aforementioned bills were intended to reduce the delays experienced in the trials of criminal offenders.
(M.G.)