The Tribune

By RODERICK A SIMMS II

THERE are many moving parts to bringing about peace and justice for citizens of The Bahamas.

One action that the government has taken is the re-introduction of the “Swift Justice” programme, which is expected to make a comeback in the 2023 first quarter.

Since it first launched in 2006, the programme’s standard operating procedure is unclear, yet it has been touted as a successful initiative in addressing the backlog of court cases.

The backlog of court cases is due to a few reasons such as an overflow of criminal proceedings and the need for better management of the courts.

Earlier this year, national security minister, Wayne Munroe KC, announced the appointment of a taskforce to review the process related to reducing the court case backlog. But whether Swift Justice is a success or not, the real issue at hand remains. The reality is that cases will continue to rise, and the backlog will remain, if we do not seek to address high crime and poor rates of offender rehabilitation. In this segment, we will discuss Swift Justice and what follows this reform.

Patchwork

The current administration has often touted the success of the Swift Justice programme. But success has to be measured, and there is currently no real data available to understand how effective the initiative has been in delivering its objective.

While Swift Justice is a good step in the direction of bringing order to the court’s management, it is a mere patch on the bigger problem at hand.

Let us start with why the high rate of violent crimes leads to an overcrowded prison. If we implement a plan to address the middle of a problem, then we have forgotten about the root of the problem. This can ultimately lead us back to where we started.

We need to see a reduction in murders, sexual assaults, rape, home invasions and armed robberies. If we start to focus on achieving this, then we would start to see an improvement in the number of cases the judiciary is faced with.

Measuring success

An important aspect of the Swift Justice programme, and to prevent continued case backlogs, would be to collect substantive data on the former.

The programme should have a standardised operational procedure (SOP). The SOP should provide us with targets or performance indicators. The data from those indicators should tell us the rate of completion, number of cases turned over a period time, actual versus targeted completion rates, categorisation of completion by types of cases, and time allotted (in days) for each case to have an average completion time.

These are some measures of success that would then allow the public to feel confident that Swift Justice is indeed effective in resolving the backlog of criminal cases. Without this data, how do we measure success?

The National Development Plan

In part of its “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions goal”, the National Development Plan (NDP) provided us with a step-by-step approach on actionable steps to prevent crime, manage crime, increase court capacity and implement improvements to help with the overall management of court proceedings.

Before there is any mention of how to improve court proceedings, the plan focuses on a ‘zero tolerance’ approach as one of its strategies. This further makes the case that before jumping into the middle of the problem, work must be done prior. The “zero tolerance” approach focuses on several key actions, some of which include:

1. Develop model codes for magistrates and judges to deal with custody and protection issues in domestic violence case

2. Monitor progress of sexual offence cases through the justice system

3. Remove all tariffs and duties on home alarms and monitoring equipment

4. Strengthen the laws regarding sentencing of violent crimes, particularly home invasion

While these steps may be viewed as “major”, they do assist in helping to deter criminal behaviour. We may think that deterring a criminal is near impossible, but most criminals always see an opportunity in their actions.

They are not to be deemed as individuals who do not have a thought process. But our court system and laws do not drive the effectiveness they need to be punishing criminals. Therefore, criminals are aware of the consequences and have accepted that they would be tolerable if condemned.

The plan points out the need for a new Family Court system, new protocols that target violent crime and a tracking system for sexual offence cases. It also speaks to rehabilitation efforts so that once offenders are convicted the system improves, distinguishing between major and how less serious offences are handled. Building a new prison is also mentioned to improve capacity to help segregate offenders.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we want to hear more on what is being done to prevent crime, which would - by extension - stop the increase in criminal proceedings.

Already for the month of January, murders were reported every week. Therefore, we see the imminent need to focus on reducing and preventing crime first.

And, if we do decide to re-introduce Swift Justice, then what data do we have to show us that it is effective? After all, accountability will allow room for improvement and bring about real change.

• Former Chamber of Commerce Family Island Division director, e-mail: RASII@ME.com