The Tribune

By DANA SMITH dsmith@tribunemedia.net PLP LEADER Perry Christie has been a "total abysmal failure" in terms of his impact on the justice system, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said. After coming under fire from the PLP over crime levels and what they claim is a slow rate of conviction, Mr Ingraham hit back at a press conference in Exuma over the weekend. He said the FNM has taken "concrete steps" to ensure the Bahamian criminal justice system works. "When we came to office we met two Supreme Court judges who were trying criminal cases in Nassau. We have now five such persons in office," Mr Ingraham said. He also pointed out that Freeport, Grand Bahama has its own full-time judge, bringing the total to six. Responding to PLP claims of slow conviction rates, Mr Ingraham said: "For the first time in many years, persons charged with serious offenses last year, 2011, have already gone through the system and been tried in the court, convicted, sentenced, and are now residing in Fox Hill Prison. "We have a court and a judge who's only job is to try current cases, meaning that any case that came up between 2010 and today, that is all that judge is supposed to do." There are another two judges who try the cases dating back to before 2010, and one more whose job it is to retry cases if the Court of Appeal deems it necessary, he explained. Mr Ingraham said: "We now have case management, we now have the police working with the Office of the Attorney General from start to finish. "When a serious offence is committed, when the police are doing their investigation, we have lawyers who are working with them from day one... so we can approve the quality of the cases that we take to the Supreme Court. "We are very proud of our record and (PLP leader Perry Christie) ought to be ashamed of himself to even talk about it because he was an abysmal failure. An abysmal failure to the criminal justice system of the Bahamas - a total abysmal failure."