Prisoners free by weekend

President George Maxwell Richards is to pardon 18 prisoners serving consecutive sentences, where the sum of these sentences exceeds the three-year limit which Magistrates may lawfully impose. The men could be free as early as this weekend.

This was announced yesterday by Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillips at a media conference at her Cabildo Chambers office. She noted that President Richards should receive the documents to free the prisoners by the end of the week, and that they could be set free as soon as a day later. Morean-Phillips explained that cases had recently been brought to her attention of convicts serving sentences exceeding the three-year limit imposed by Section 72 of the Summary Courts Act. “We have identified 18 people serving over the three-year period. It took over a week to get the information”.

She said that to identify these prisoners, the Commissioner of Prisons had to go through a list of  4,000 prisoners incarcerated, the sentences and any time off for good behaviour, to determine the date a prisoner should be released. Morean-Phillips announced that the legal device she would use to remedy these unlawful sentences would be a presidential pardon, allowed under Section 87 of the national Constitution. “The President can remit sentences on the advice of the Minister of National Security. That’s the process we have advised should be adopted”.

A statement issued supplementary to the media conference elaborated: “Upon the advice of the Honourable Minister, the President may issue a Presidential Order remitting the sentences of each prisoner so that the term of imprisonment to be served by him/her now becomes the concurrent term. Whereupon calculation the prisoner has already served a term in excess of the appropriate term, the President may order the immediate release of the prisoner. Prisoners whose concurrent terms of imprisonment require that they serve the remainder of their sentence will continue to be kept in custody as the law requires”. Morean-Phillips said she would have to look at claims for compensation, but acknowledged it could be greater than the $5,000 being currently mentioned.  She thought such compensation could be promptly paid, saying: “We are not in virgin territory. The State has been paying compensation. The Court has set yardsticks and we’ll be guided by what has been done before”.

But while the Government was seeking the current presidential pardons, Morean-Phillips said she will legislate to increase the length of aggregate sentences which magistrates could impose, possibly up to 10 years. “You have to put a limit. You can’t have magistrates sentencing up to 20, 30 or 40 years. There had been a suggestion as to 10 years. We have not yet decided”. She said she had already reported in Parliament that she had instructed the Law Reform Commission to draft legislation to thus amend section 72 of Summary Courts Act. Pressed as to whether a repeat of the over-sentencing could occur even with this 10 year limit, she remarked: “Yes they could, but now that this has happened you would expect that magistrates would read the law and be more careful in the way they dispense justice”.

She then announced that the Government would amend  section 156 of the Summary Courts Act to prevent judges from imposing sentences which disregard jail time already served awaiting appeal. She said she had not detected any opposition from the Judiciary/Magistracy on this matter. She was asked about the 21 prisoners whose appeals had been dismissed because, although duly filed by the convicts within the statutory seven day limit, the prison authorities had failed to forward them to the Court of Appeal within that time. Morean-Phillips replied: “Their lawyers can claim compensation. Some prisoners will be pretty satisfied”.