NEWLY appointed: Vinette Graham-Allen

Published On:Thursday, September 02, 2010

By PAUL G TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

pturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE NEWLY appointed Director of Public Prosecutions, Vinette Graham-Allen said she is prepared to do all she can to allow the citizens of the Bahamas to regain trust in their judicial system by reducing and preventing the backlog of criminal cases.

Sitting down with The Tribune for an exclusive interview just three weeks after taking over the post, Mrs Graham-Allen said she has met with a number of stakeholders in the judicial system - the Commissioner of Police, the Chief Justice, the head of Prosecutions, and a number of others to lay a foundation for "the changes" that she hopes to make in the near future.

With her two deputy directors Franklyn Williams and Garvin Gaskin, and the Attorney General John Delaney present, Mrs Graham-Allen explained that a management system she created and utilized in Jamaica and Bermuda could be duplicated in the Bahamas to also reduce the backlog of cases here.

"So my experience in this area, in this regard with dealing with backlog, started before 1992. It started in the Magistrate's Court in 1976, but more importantly, in 1992 when I joined the Department of Public Prosecutions in Jamaica. I worked in that particular area and then I supervised that area and I think I am perfecting the art of getting rid of backlog and preventing backlog," she said.

This practice continued when Mrs Graham-Allen transferred to Bermuda in 2000 as a senior crown council, before eventually becoming the Director of Public Prosecutions there in 2004.

"I have put systems in place there that have caused the backlog to be eliminated in Bermuda. It started when I was a senior crown when I went there. I assessed the policies, procedures and processes, so when I became the Director I knew what exactly needed to be done and I did it. So coming to the Bahamas I have come with those kinds of experiences that I have had in the past since 1992, to do what is required here; which is to allow the citizens of the Bahamas to regain trust and confidence in the system by reducing backlog and preventing backlog," she said.

Meeting first with the Commissioner of Police and his senior staff, Mrs Graham-Allen said that she reminded them of the constitutional provisions about trial within a reasonable time and provisions that affected them as police, and provisions that affected the Attorney General's office as prosecutors.

Out of this, she said, they formed a criminal case management team which had a witness liaison officer, who was responsible for just contacting police officers and ensuring that they attend court when they are required.

"Then I took on a temporary staff and focused on how we treated witnesses and victims. That was a big change. I had this young lady contacting witnesses and keeping them abreast of the development of their cases and that made a huge difference in Bermuda. As well as producing a prosecution team from when a crime is reported have the prosecutors available for legal guidance to the police and they will eventually have conduct of that matter right up until the Court of Appeal, should there be a conviction," she said.

Currently Mrs Graham-Allen said that she is undergoing a process of assessing the processes, policies, and systems in the Bahamas' legal system to see if all of these and other components of her programme can be implemented here. At this time she said, it would be "too early" to say until the assessment is complete.

"I am actually doing an assessment of the backlog. The nature of the backlog, and what is required to get it out of the way. Whether it is human resources or other resources, or both," she explained.

Adding to the discussion, Minister Delaney said that it is important for the public to understand that the effort currently being undertaken to revamp the Attorney General's office and the judicial system is "unparalleled" in our life time.

"Never before has this much effort been given to the entire justice system in our life time. Some of our offences are so outdated that they do not take in the modern reality and in themselves need to be looked at. And in relation to where they stand they are really trapped back in the 1900s," he said.

As it relates to the backlog of cases, Minister Delaney said that they have criminal cases in the system that date back to the early 1990's. Therefore, he said, his office does not want this backlog to continue and accrue new cases.

"The backlog, in the Supreme Court is in the area of 450. It was obviously a bit more earlier this year. We have new cases entering the system all the time. They are indictable cases, that means they are cases that will come to the Supreme Court in due course.

"In the Magistrate's Court the number is in the thousands. Because of the time over which all of this occurred, our success will be to put in place policies and systems that increase the through-put of cases that would lead to the non-accrual and reduction of cases overtime.

"Anybody that tells you this can be fixed in three months, two years, or three years, then you have to question the veracity of those representations. I can't be. It took us many years to get to this point. But we are putting in place policies that will remediate this as quickly as possible with the resources that are available.

"That is what we are doing," he said.

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