One of the most intriguing matters in my country is that of justice. There is a lot of claim at the moment about promoting the rule of law; and for a moment the citizens were thankful that at last, hope for change is alive again, little did they know that it’s just one of the propaganda that starts big and dies before it can get its footings.
I’ve always respected the legal profession and its practitioners, and still do respect them, but in many ways question the system in which they operate. In a very recent incident, I witnessed – a mobile court session, in which we had the judge, two court clerks, an interpreter, a prosecuting attorney and a witness from the law enforcement agency on patrol that day. Over 150 individuals (2% minors, 75% earning less than $1 a week, 23% with earnings less than $5 a week) were to be prosecuted for loitering during environmental sanitation periods.
In this court session there was no defense attorney, to defend any of the accused, they faced the judge in 20s or 30s, with the clerk reading the charges against them, if there are not learned the interpreter interprets the charges and the judge asks “do you understand what you’re been charged for?” then allows any of the accused who has a prove to show that he/she is exempted from the sanitation exercise – on the grounds of government utility service – to show the proof, if it is valid he/she is freed, if not if the answer to the above question is yes, all the accused before the judge are sentenced to months imprisonment, with a bail option of about $20.
Only 30% of the lot could get sponsors to pay off their bails, and paying the bail off their income was not an option. So about 70% had of the accused would have to face the prison sentence, without anyone to defend their cause. This is how many land in prison for such trivial matters as loitering during a sanitation curfew.
As much as I respect the rule of law and will stand against any act that shows flagrant disobedience to the laws of the land, the major question that comes to mind in a situation like this is, what happened to community service, what happened to house arrest and the like, seemingly moderate penalties for offences of this nature. It’s really intriguing to know that someone could possibly face a 3 months prison sentence for crossing the road wrongly, I really can’t imagine this.
As I advice that as reasonable citizens, it is our duty to obey the law at all times, I will also want to draw the attention of as many as read this to the situation in the judiciary and the effect it has in the prisons in the country.
In this matter, my major concern is the manner by which the court of law deals with the case of a suspect or an accused, in the incidence I witnessed, there was no defense attorney, but because of the laws of the land, the accused had to be sentenced without a defense, ‘as long as they understood the charges leveled against them, they were sentenced to prison’, what happened to guilty or not guilty.
In other situations, the suspects don’t even have the witness to confirm that they committed the crime, and no defence attorney; at the end of the day the judge remands the suspect in prison and states another date for hearings, in this new date, ‘no defense attorney, no witness’, the suspect is still remanded, with no hope for freedom, and the suspect can remain in prison without being convicted for over 15 years or more, a number of times the families of suspects are not even aware that their folks are in prison.
In a recent TV show – Inside Out, the host lamented on the conditions in the prison and I got a perspective of the reality of what I consider to be injustice, in a nation I hear promotes the rule of law. Asides the deplorable conditions in the prisons, many of the prisons are over-crowded, when everyone facing a court session is consider to be going straight to the prison whether guilty or not-guilty. In one of our states, the total prison capacity is 2,700, presently there are 3,000 inmates, 300 above the limit, not too alarming; but of the 3,000 only 350 are convicted, 150 condemned and the remaining 2,500 are “Awaiting Trial.” 2,500! That means the prisons are just housing 2,500 people who should not be there if we had a functioning judiciary.
The prison to the judiciary is the home for any accused; the absence of a witness and a defence attorney automatically sends the accused back to the prison, there is nothing like discharging the accused on a no-case grounds, since there is no witness to back the claims stated in the charges against the accused, instead the prison is used as a trash-can for anyone to that appears before the judge.
Where the prisons should be a place for reformation; it is now a dean of lions, where once a person enters, he never comes out in a right frame of mind. Who will defend these people that can’t defend themselves, because they have very little or no knowledge of their rights as citizens; to deliver them from the claws of the unjust sentences passed by judges working in a malfunctioning judicial system.
I used to think the prison was for only the convicted and condemned, and cells for the guys awaiting trials, but today the prison is the judiciary’s trash can. With no one to defend these helpless citizens, the aim for prisons – being a corrective facility can never be realized and the general public is at risk, because when the guys in the prison receive pardon somehow and get to the streets, making nothing out of the prisons, the possibilities of being a terror to the society is high.
Who will defend their cause?
Posted by davidluiz in Old files, Political
I’ve always respected the legal profession and its practitioners, and still do respect them, but in many ways question the system in which they operate. In a very recent incident, I witnessed – a mobile court session, in which we had the judge, two court clerks, an interpreter, a prosecuting attorney and a witness from the law enforcement agency on patrol that day. Over 150 individuals (2% minors, 75% earning less than $1 a week, 23% with earnings less than $5 a week) were to be prosecuted for loitering during environmental sanitation periods.
In this court session there was no defense attorney, to defend any of the accused, they faced the judge in 20s or 30s, with the clerk reading the charges against them, if there are not learned the interpreter interprets the charges and the judge asks “do you understand what you’re been charged for?” then allows any of the accused who has a prove to show that he/she is exempted from the sanitation exercise – on the grounds of government utility service – to show the proof, if it is valid he/she is freed, if not if the answer to the above question is yes, all the accused before the judge are sentenced to months imprisonment, with a bail option of about $20.
Only 30% of the lot could get sponsors to pay off their bails, and paying the bail off their income was not an option. So about 70% had of the accused would have to face the prison sentence, without anyone to defend their cause. This is how many land in prison for such trivial matters as loitering during a sanitation curfew.
As much as I respect the rule of law and will stand against any act that shows flagrant disobedience to the laws of the land, the major question that comes to mind in a situation like this is, what happened to community service, what happened to house arrest and the like, seemingly moderate penalties for offences of this nature. It’s really intriguing to know that someone could possibly face a 3 months prison sentence for crossing the road wrongly, I really can’t imagine this.
As I advice that as reasonable citizens, it is our duty to obey the law at all times, I will also want to draw the attention of as many as read this to the situation in the judiciary and the effect it has in the prisons in the country.
In this matter, my major concern is the manner by which the court of law deals with the case of a suspect or an accused, in the incidence I witnessed, there was no defense attorney, but because of the laws of the land, the accused had to be sentenced without a defense, ‘as long as they understood the charges leveled against them, they were sentenced to prison’, what happened to guilty or not guilty.
In other situations, the suspects don’t even have the witness to confirm that they committed the crime, and no defence attorney; at the end of the day the judge remands the suspect in prison and states another date for hearings, in this new date, ‘no defense attorney, no witness’, the suspect is still remanded, with no hope for freedom, and the suspect can remain in prison without being convicted for over 15 years or more, a number of times the families of suspects are not even aware that their folks are in prison.
In a recent TV show – Inside Out, the host lamented on the conditions in the prison and I got a perspective of the reality of what I consider to be injustice, in a nation I hear promotes the rule of law. Asides the deplorable conditions in the prisons, many of the prisons are over-crowded, when everyone facing a court session is consider to be going straight to the prison whether guilty or not-guilty. In one of our states, the total prison capacity is 2,700, presently there are 3,000 inmates, 300 above the limit, not too alarming; but of the 3,000 only 350 are convicted, 150 condemned and the remaining 2,500 are “Awaiting Trial.” 2,500! That means the prisons are just housing 2,500 people who should not be there if we had a functioning judiciary.
The prison to the judiciary is the home for any accused; the absence of a witness and a defence attorney automatically sends the accused back to the prison, there is nothing like discharging the accused on a no-case grounds, since there is no witness to back the claims stated in the charges against the accused, instead the prison is used as a trash-can for anyone to that appears before the judge.
Where the prisons should be a place for reformation; it is now a dean of lions, where once a person enters, he never comes out in a right frame of mind. Who will defend these people that can’t defend themselves, because they have very little or no knowledge of their rights as citizens; to deliver them from the claws of the unjust sentences passed by judges working in a malfunctioning judicial system.
I used to think the prison was for only the convicted and condemned, and cells for the guys awaiting trials, but today the prison is the judiciary’s trash can. With no one to defend these helpless citizens, the aim for prisons – being a corrective facility can never be realized and the general public is at risk, because when the guys in the prison receive pardon somehow and get to the streets, making nothing out of the prisons, the possibilities of being a terror to the society is high.
What can be done to correct this anomaly?