–Prison CoI urges decriminalisation of small amounts of ganja

By Shauna Jemmott

THE report of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 3rd, 2016 riots at the Georgetown Prisons that claimed 17 lives has recommended that Government reorient law enforcement efforts to target high-level drug-trafficking networks, and de-criminalize possession of minimal amounts of marijuana for personal use.The document, titled “Report -– The Commission of Inquiry – Camp Street Prison Disturbances and Resultant Deaths March 2-4 2016” — was on June 1 formally submitted to President David Granger by Chairman of the Commission, Justice James Patterson, at the Ministry of the Presidency in Georgetown.

‘LANDMARK REPORT’
President Granger called it a “landmark report”, and said at the handing over ceremony that its recommendations are vital to the country’s criminal justice system.

“This is a landmark report. It will affect a very important element in our criminal justice system, and I would like to assure you all that the efforts of the Government of Guyana will be directed towards ensuring that this country becomes a safer place, and that the core of our children and our men and women going into the prisons…when they come out, they would not want to go in again,” the President stated.

In addressing matters of the judiciary, magistracy and legal system, Justice Patterson and his commissioners said preventive detention or remand should be avoided in the case of low-level, non-violent offenders, and: “re-orient law enforcement efforts to target high-level drug-trafficking networks, rather than those at the bottom rung of the drug-trafficking ladder, such as consumers, small-scale farmers, low-level dealers, and mules.”

ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION
It was also recommended that the judiciary, magistracy and legal system “decriminalize possession of (minimal) amounts of marijuana for personal use (and) establish and expand alternatives to incarceration for those charged with low-level drug offences.”

Proportionality in sentencing should be ensured, distinguishing between “drug trafficking and other types of crime; low, medium and high-level drug offences; rank or position of the accused in drug-trafficking networks; (and) violent and non-violent offences.”

According to Page 57 of the report, which was shown to the Guyana Chronicle, the CoI also believes that magistrates must recognize and enforce the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence of accused persons in considering bail applications.

The judiciary, magistracy and legal system should also employ “non-custodial sentences in all cases of possession -– such as treatment, educational opportunities, or community service -– that are available to those involved in other types of offences,” the report recommends.

OVERCROWDING
Throughout the hearings of the CoI, overcrowding was recognized as the number one problem facing the prison, and this recognition was made by prison officials, officers and prisoners alike.

To ease that situation, the panel of commissioners — Chairman Justice James Patterson, Human Rights activist Merle Mendonca, and former Director of Prisons Dale Erskine — recommended that preventative detention in the form of remand should be avoided by the magistracy in the case of low-level, non-violent offenders.

According to the document, the Chairman and Commissioners also recommended that “comprehensive prison censuses should be undertaken periodically, to upgrade and expand criminal justice data systems and ensure timely access to criminal justice information for policy-makers and the public”.

Mandatory minimum sentences should also be abolished, the CoI said.

URGENT
Justice Patterson, on June 1, told reporters that the recommendations should be implemented urgently.
“Our concern is that our concerns are urgent, immediate, and we want it done like yesterday… It is hoped that they will be executed in a timely manner, because they so deserve to be,” Justice Patterson had said.