Now that the Attorney General’s Chambers in Anguilla has returned to its busy schedule in the aftermath of, and recovery from, Hurricane Irma, the AG, Mr. John McKendrick, QC, has shared with The Anguillian plans to introduce a new Criminal Justice Reform Bill, part of a package of reform legislation for the island.
“Things have picked up and become much busier from the start of this year,” he stated. “The Chief Minister certainly has a lot of projects that he wishes to make some significance with in 2018, and we have been a lot busier in the first four months of this year assisting him with his important work.”
“Aside from this, one of the things that I have been working on is more holistic justice reform and I plan to bring to the House of Assembly, very soon, a Criminal Justice Reform Bill. That Bill will deal with a number of issues, but it is part of a package of legislative reform to protect vulnerable people on the island. I think some of our legislation is outdated and we are not doing enough to protect vulnerable people – whether they are children, vulnerable women or whether they are mentally-ill people or mentally incapacitated people. We are not doing enough within the justice system to protect those at the margins; and that is the first role of Government to protect the vulnerable; and it is the first role of the justice system to be alive to how the vulnerable can be protected and how their rights should be enforced.”
The Attorney General continued: “The legislative reform that I am interested in, on the one hand, deals with reform to the criminal justice system, but also reform to the family justice system so that we will have a better system in place to protect children from families who are not promoting their wellbeing; who are not safeguarding them; who are allowing them to be the subjects of sexual and physical abuse. On the family justice reform, I am working closely with the Minister for Social Development [Mr. Evan McNiel Rogers], Permanent Secretary Dr. Bonnie Richardson Lake, and her team, to bring in proper child protection legislation to create some changes to the justice system – to create a Family Division of the High Court to deal with some of the more serious cases and to create, amongst the Magistracy, a proper family Court where family cases can be sensitively dealt with.
“Hand in hand with that, is the Criminal Justice Reform which will look at bringing in special measures for vulnerable witnesses; limitations on the ability of those accused of sexual abuse from being able to directly ask questions of complainants; and the admission into evidence of ‘achieving best evidence’ interviews, for children, in particular, to help them give carefully thought through evidence. I also want to create a new series of criminal offences regarding the making of indecent images of children and adults and passing them around on social media. Unfortunately, this happens here in Anguilla and needs to be outlawed and prohibited. I also want to give a proper statutory footing to a sex offenders’ register, and to the Child Safeguarding Board so that they have a bigger role in safeguarding children on the island.”
Mr. McKendrick further disclosed that he was arranging a conference with speakers, with a legal and child-safeguarding background from across the Caribbean and from England, to train social workers, persons involved in the justice system, teachers, and councillors who are all involved in protecting children. The aim is for these persons to start to take a more holistic view of safeguarding and protecting children, and vulnerable people, on the island.
The Attorney General said he was also trying to bring some order to traffic offences to require people to wear seat belts – to criminalise the driver if passengers were not wearing seat belts; to require children to be properly accommodated in cars with proper car seats; to outlaw the use of mobile phones whilst driving; and to provide for proper on the spot fines by the police.
“I also want to bring in a system whereby the Commissioner of Police can give people cautions rather than always charging them with criminal offences,” Mr. McKendrick said. “I think cautions are used in many jurisdictions to deal with low-level offending, and first time offending, without actually criminalising or stigmatising people. I also want to bring in a system of rehabilitation of offenders convicted of certain offences after the passage of some time. We need a system of ‘spent’ offences, as we can all make mistakes.
“What I also want to do is to continue where the previous Attorney General, Rupert Jones, worked hard to create an all paper system for preliminary enquires, before the Magistracy, because one of the challenges we are seeing in the criminal justice system is the length of time it takes from the charging decision to the outcome of an indictable offence in the High Court – and that can be quite long sometimes. Probably, the major reason for that is by having to bring witnesses to preliminary enquiries which can go on for weeks or months.
“I also think that is an unfair system because we are seeing more and more crimes involving the sexual abuse of children and it is unfair to require children to come to court to give evidence twice. So the process of preliminary enquiries would only be a paper one. We are now the only Overseas Territory that has preliminary enquiries, and they are clogging up the justice system – and they are unfair to the victims of crime. We need to have a clearer and faster system in place, plus at all times maintaining fairness to the defendant and ensuring that any criminal justice system is a fair one.”
The Attorney General spoke about another matter which has been the subject of much debate for a long time. “The last thing that I am proposing – and I have the support of the Ministers and my other colleagues in Executive Council – is the decriminalisation of small amounts of cannabis,” he told The Anguillian. “From what I can see, too many young men, in particular, are being charged with possession of cannabis. That stigmatises them; creates difficulties for them getting jobs; and creates difficulties for them travelling to the United States. These convictions then cannot be spent and have a very significant negative impact on a lot of the young men on the island.
“I don’t think there is a sufficient case to say that it is such a social harm if a person is only in possession of a small amount of cannabis, and for us to take up so much police time. What we have to recognise is that if we ask the police to chase down everybody who has a small amount of cannabis in their possession, then a very large amount of police time is diverted from more pressing social crimes – whether gun offences; violent offences; sexual offences; and financial offences. I think those must be the priorities to keep Anguillians safe. I have had long discussions with Executive Council, and with the Commissioner of Police, and we will be moving forward with the decriminalisation of small amounts of cannabis.”
The Attorney General added: “That in no way legalises the supply of cannabis, and anyone involved in those other crimes will continue to be investigated, charged and prosecuted. That is quite some substantial criminal justice reform which we will move on with in the next few weeks.”
