Faced with multiple instances of witnesses and victims being a no-show because they have not been updated about their cases, Supreme Court Judge Justice Vinette Graham-Allen is recommending the crafting of a national victim information and notification system (NVINS) to give real-time advisories to the parties about critical developments in criminal matters.

Speaking during a recent forum to explore the issue put on by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social & Economic Studies (SALISES) of The University of the West Indies, Mona, Justice Graham-Allen said the lack of such a system has been the bane of her courtroom.

“This is what I have found, victims do not attend, or their witnesses, because they are not kept informed of the outcome of the case on each and every occasion that it comes before the court. So, naturally, what you find is that because they do not know the developments, nobody tells them. When the police go to find them at the last known address or telephone number, no answer, because that is not being done,” she told the forum.

Graham-Allen is the judge in charge of the case management court which ensures that matters are properly prepared before being sent to trial.

The tool, which exists in several jurisdictions outside Jamaica, typically notifies victims of crimes about court dates, bail decisions, parole status, and any changes in the offender’s location or release from custody. The information is confidential, free, and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

A NVINS was the focus of a 2019 Witness Care Conference by SALISES which yielded several recommendations focused on the need to develop capacity to implement and sustain the system among other things.

Last week’s forum, SALISES said, “was because of the Jamaica Observer’s two articles that put this important issue back into the spotlight”.

Justice Graham-Allen, in her preamble, said the need for an effective victim notification system in Jamaica has gained increasing attention in recent years. In noting that attempts to address the vexed issue started a long time ago she said the recent reports published by the Observer have also reignited public discourse on the subject.

“Most times when I ask the prosecutor in court, ‘Were the subpoenas served on the victim’? [I am told] ‘No, Mi’lady… I went to the address, I can’t find them; I call the number, it’s not in service’. The victim or witness is not served and so, because the case is to be tried in reasonable time, we embark on what is called a reasonable time chronology to find out how long this case has been before the court. The prosecutor may say the main witness cannot be located; because they were not kept informed as the case progressed through the system,” she said.

According to the Supreme Court judge, it is also often the case that witnesses and victims are left in the dark when a case that cannot be tried in the lower courts is transferred to the Home Circuit Court.

“Most times when the case is transferred from a lower court to the Home Circuit Court, they don’t know. Usually this is the responsibility of the investigating officer. It is important to bear these things in mind,” she pointed out.

Graham-Allen, in relating her experience as Director of Public Prosecutions in The Bahamas, where victims expressed discomfort with police visiting their homes to deliver notifications, said technology might solve the issue.

“I make this point because I think the time has come for us to look for innovative ways, and e-mail is one of them I would recommend,” she said while proposing that victims or witnesses giving testimony from remote locations from anywhere in the world should become more of the norm once the criteria stipulated in the legislation are met to the court’s satisfaction.

Additionally, she said the subject of accused on bail should be addressed.

“The other issue I would like to consider, when the accused is offered bail… you are in [a] supermarket doing the shopping and when and you look you are in the same corridor as the man who [for example] chopped your daughter or murdered a family member. Nobody told you [they were out on bail]. So please, this kind of situation needs to be addressed in the innovative system, bearing in mind the right of a victim,” the judge said.

“I am going to suggest we consider greater use of technology in our business line, as recommended in the Jamaica 2030 National Vision Report,” Graham-Allen said.

While acknowledging that not all victims are witnesses, though all witnesses are victims, she said, “Victims, at times, may die, but most times you have a witness who saw what happened, so the witness also must be considered under this rubric of innovative change that we are discussing.”

Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Claudette Thompson, in responding to the points made by Graham-Allen, said the Office of the DPP, though constrained by resources, “recognises the value in having witness care and, by extension, witness notification”.

Thompson, however, explained that the ODPP at this time has only a single witness care officer who is tasked with engaging all witnesses.

“This single officer, while engaging witnesses, is tasked with alerting them to their next court date; the single officer prepares them for court by way of orientation and literally takes the witness to an empty courtroom and orientates them with the space; indicates where the judge will be seated, where the jury will be, if it is a jury trial; where he or she will be in court; and most significantly where the accused will be,” she said.

Thompson said that same witness care officer preps the witness to give evidence and is present at court.

“Sometimes the engagement is so intimate that the witness is reluctant to give the evidence in the absence of the officer, and that single officer makes herself available as much as is possible to the witness,” she said, while emphasising that this was all in the context of the office’s heavy caseload.

“There are five criminal courts at the Home Circuit Court; any given week there are no less than five matters fixed for trial, so there is at least one vulnerable witness in each case. There are 15 weeks per term, there are five cases per week, and at least one witness who needs the care and attention and continuity of the work of a witness care officer. We are talking about a single officer having to treat with a minimum 75 witnesses in a 15-week term, and that’s only for Kingston and St Andrew,” Thompson outlined.

“We look at the other 12 parishes, it is the same witness case officer who is expected to treat with those witness from a low of 100 plus matters during a four-week period to a high of anywhere to 300 to almost 400 matters in a parish like Westmoreland, Manchester, St Catherine. So while we understand and appreciate the importance of the witness case officer we ask you to understand the volume and the shortfall we are dealing with in terms of manpower,” she pointed out.

She said to deal with the shortfall, the same Crown counsel who is dealing with no less than five matters per week in Kingston but who, when he or she goes on the Circuit, is dealing with — in a four-week period — at least 150 to 170 matters, has to care for the witnesses in those matters.

“Imagine having to care for at least one witness in 150 matters… that is the volume, that is the situation we are having to deal with when a prosecutor is having to treat with witness care because we can’t expand it to victim care,” Thompson said.

“When you are talking about, for example, a complainant who is a witness in a sexual assault case, the trauma extends to other siblings in the very home, the trauma extends to the family members, imagine the single witness case officer having to give care and having to engage those other family members, which is why we have narrowed it down to witness care and you will have to forgive us,” she stated.

“I will confess, I will admit, I accept that we need more bodies… with the volume of crime and the volume of cases we are dealing with now, we would need 15 non-prosecutors, where their sole responsibility is to engage, interact with, provide information to our witnesses. It is a fact that not every single witness is reached or reached in time or given sufficient notice. It is because we do not have the manpower behind all of the activities required why not all persons are not reached, reached in time, or given sufficient notice,” she stated.