PATTERSON... programme will bring together various initiatives

A planned five-year, comprehensive reform of the criminal justice system, proposed by the Ministry of Justice, will be given priority budgetary support in 2006/2007, Prime Minister P J Patterson said on Monday.

He, however, did not disclose a price tag for the project, which was announced at the weekened retreat of the Cabinet.

He said that the programme would bring together various initiatives, now being undertaken, in a "systematic and projectised" approach, based on three pillars - access, quality and speed.

A reform unit will be established in the ministry to give focus and priority to the reforms, Patterson told journalists at a briefing on Monday.

The elements of the reform approved by the cabinet include:

. A structured programme of infrastructural upgrading of court facilities and the construction of new ones, which will allow for the installation of new technologies;

. The automation of the DPP's office and the courts to facilitate an efficient case flow management system;

. Regionalisation of the Supreme Court into three regional centres - Manchester, St Ann and St James - to improve access and increase case turnover and throughput;

. Regionalisation of the Justice Training Institute and Court Reporting Programme. Court reporters will be placed in Resident Magistrate's Courts by September and the Justice Training Institute expanded to facilitate regionalisation;

. The review of payment/renumeration levels of legal aid attorneys and jurors;

. Training to improve the capacity of the justice system, including the training for judicial appointments.

A major shift in the justice system involves a human rights-based approach to justice. A critical component of this initiative will include public education, he said.

Patterson said that the law was not static and had to evolve and recognise changing times.

"What we are saying is that in all the legislation that we bring, and in the interpretation which the court makes of those laws, there must constantly be the recognition and protection of certain basic human rights, which presently are enshrined in our constitution and which very soon we hope will be reflected in the charter of rights," he said.

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