Appeals should not increase time

THE EDITOR: I write to you on behalf of a relative who is presently incarcerated at the Maximum Security Prison with a view of finding out if prisoners are entitled to appeal their matter upon conviction and sentence or if they must just accept the penalty whether guilty or not. This relative of mine (nephew) was convicted and sentenced to term of imprisonment sometime in the year 2001. The matter was appealed, and sometime at the end of 2002 (after being reserved) the said appeal was dismissed and conviction and sentence were affirmed.

The appellant was ordered to begin serving the sentence from the date the appeal was dismissed, which means that the appellant will have to sever some 15 months more in prison. I was also told of another inmate at the said prison, who spent five years at the Remand Yard awaiting his appeal, and after the appeal was heard and dismissed, he was ordered to begin serving the sentence (20 years) from the date of its dismissal. I assure you that there are many more persons is in prison who are in that same position.

Can’t something be done about this? What I don’t seem to understand is this, the prison authority keep complaining about overcrowding in the nation’s prisons, but if they are serious about solving the overcrowding problem then this is a good area in which to start. Something should be put in place to have inmates credited with the time spent awaiting their appeal. What is also important to note here is that apart from a prisoner’s right to appeal his or her matter, it must be observed that a lot of those appeals have merit, so much so, that the appeals court applies what is known as the “Proviso.”

This leaves me to believe that when one is convicted and sentenced to prison he/she should not appeal, even though at the end of it all, he/she has a genuine appeal which sometimes finishes at the Privy Council with a victory. In light of what I just shed, I honestly think that the relevant authority should seriously look into this. I know for a fact that there are persons even at ministerial level who are aware of what I am saying and should therefore come forward to assist those who suffer from what I will call, a form of injustice to persons who exercise their rights to an appeal.

KERVIN JOSEPH
Cocoyea