Commissioner of Corrections Brigadier (Ret’d) Radgh Mason on Friday doubled down on his insistence that attorneys have not been barred from seeing their clients with electronic devices in tow, but relented to have formal notices posted at prisons giving attorneys the same licence as medical doctors and officers of the Independent Commission of Investigations to enter with electronic devices.

The matter is one of several being ironed out before Supreme Court Judge Justice Dale Palmer ahead of the pending trial of 25 alleged members of the Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman Gang in the Home Circuit Court, downtown Kingston.

Miller — who is currently serving 38 years at hard labour for engineering the 2008 murder of former Jamaica Urban Transit Company Chairman Douglas Chambers — is answering to charges under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) (Amendment) Act, commonly called the anti-gang law, for leadership of the organisation.

He and the 24 other accused now facing trial are alleged to have participated in several criminal activities between August 5, 2017 and August 22, 2022 in St Catherine. The charges include murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravation, illegal possession of firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.

When the matter was called up on Wednesday defence attorneys had complained bitterly that they were being routinely barred by prison officials from visiting their clients to take instructions and/or to share documentation that had been disclosed electronically. This, they said, remained so despite the presence of an April 2024 practice direction issued by head of the judiciary Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, which authorised disclosure by electronic method (criminal proceedings), for all trial proceedings in the Home Circuit and Rural Circuit Criminal courts.

The directions, which serve as a guide for the prosecution in discharging its disclosure obligations and seek to enable greater efficiency and effectiveness in court proceedings, include disclosure by way of e-mail, thumb drives, CD-ROMS, and hyperlinks. “Disclosed material” includes any information, document, data, or other material that the prosecution has a duty to disclose.

The practice directions were issued following advocacy from Supreme Court Judge Justice Vinette Graham-Allen based on complaints of defence attorneys and her experience in the Case Management Court, particularly in gang matters which involve multiple defendants.

However, not long after the issuing of those practice directions Graham-Allen, during a July 2024 sitting, urged the Jamaican Bar Association to put in writing the grouses of defence bar members who said there had been resistance by correctional facilities to them taking electronic devices when meeting with their clients, despite the shift towards electronic disclosure by the Crown.

On Friday, Brigadier Mason, appearing at the court’s invitation, told the sitting that since he assumed office in April 2024 the issue had been brought to his attention and efforts made to address them.

According to Mason, “All superintendents were given clear directives verbally and in writing that it is the constitutional right for inmates to receive legal counsel and as such there should be no fettering of legal counsel.”

“This was communicated very clearly, we also put in measures to provide direct communication between attorneys and specific superintendents at the facilities… so that attorneys can notify superintendents of their visit. As per the Corrections Act, an assistant superintendent is the lowest rank afforded responsibility to coordinate those visits,” he told the tribunal.

The CDS head, in noting the insistence from attorneys that they were still being barred, said there was no evidence to support those claims.

“To my certain knowledge there have been, since then, no reports of counsel being prevented from entering the facilities with their electronic devices. When this matter would have been brought to my attentions we made enquiries into the register; and from the inspection, both looking at the manual register and a look at some of the CCTV footage, we would not have been privy to any complaints that counsel would have been prevented from taking in their electronic devices,” he told the court.

Furthermore, Mason said while the institution has strict guidelines for visits generally, the matter of counsel is treated with additional discretion with allowances made for a superintendent to provide authorisation for visits outside of normal hours to accommodate legal counsel.

He noted that since the legislation is silent on visits outside the normal work week, visits outside of the normal stipulated workdays require authorisation and said communication in advance by attorneys would help to make visits “more seamless”.

Defence attorneys Tamika Harris and John Clarke argued that they would be hard pressed to make contact on every occasion access was needed to facilities, and preferred instead if an authorised notice was placed at the various prisons stating the permissions given for access so that specific individuals did not have to be alerted.

In response, the corrections commissioner relented, saying, “If it puts the matter to rest, the notice will be posted.”