THE MINISTER of National Security and Justice, K.D. Knight, is to be commended for expanding on the recommendations in the Wolfe Report and introducing fundamental changes to the criminal justice system. The reforms are contained in the bill which was passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to amend the Criminal Justice (Reform) Act of 1978.
The reforms are far-reaching and will bring aspects of the criminal justice system into at least the twentieth if not the twenty-first century. For example, the proposals will allow judges to impose non-custodial sentencing options such as orders to seek mediation services, attendance at day training centres and placement under curfew with electronic monitoring.
The legislation represents a major shift in the modus operandi of the justice system from custody to rehabilitation and is a genuine attempt to find new ways of treating with criminal offenders.
One of the more interesting provisions will allow persons who are sentenced to up to three months in jail to serve the time on the weekends, reporting for incarceration at six on Friday evening and leaving jail at six on Sunday evening. This should result in minimum disruption of the individual's life yet at the same time will require that the debt to the society for the particular offence is repaid.
New thinking, as exemplified in the legislation, has to be applied to those in the 17 to 25-year age groups who form the core of the criminal offenders. Building new prisons as the Government plans to do is hardly the solution.
Our young people, particularly our young men from the inner-city communities, have to be provided with options other than a life of crime. When they do run afoul of the law for relatively minor offences rehabilitation must be the first consideration rather than actions which inevitably turns them into hardened criminals.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
