PROMINENT defence attorney Peter Champagnie, King’s Counsel, has mooted the creation of a Criminal Justice Board — similar to the one established by Caribbean neighbours Belize — which, he says, will prevent logjams between the correctional services and defence attorneys like what obtained just days ago.

The latest stand-off between the groups saw Commissioner of Corrections Brigadier (Ret’d) Radgh Mason appearing before a Supreme Court judge last Friday to refute claims that attorneys were being barred from seeing their clients with electronic devices in tow by prison officials. Following strong arguments by defence attorneys Tamika Harris and John Clarke, the commissioner relented, saying that formal notices will now be posted at prisons giving attorneys the same licence as medical doctors and officers of the Independent Commission of Investigations to enter with electronic devices.

Champagnie, speaking with the Jamaica Observer further on the issue, called for a systematic approach.

“Belize has established a Criminal Justice Board. It meets regularly and it consists of persons from the head of the correctional services, persons from the judiciary, persons from the security forces, persons from the medical facilities, and, of course, lawyers and prosecutors, and what they seek to do is to formulate and ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page and that there is a kind of protocol that is observed,” Champagnie shared.

“They meet regularly and so they are able to deal with these issues because, say for instance the chief justice sends out a circular or issues a practice direction and it is not being adhered to, then this committee is a medium by which these things can be addressed; and I think that in Jamaica, whilst our system is very, very impressive in comparison to other jurisdictions in the Caribbean, we really don’t have that kind of body, and if we do, it is certainly not being felt in terms of its effectiveness so as to treat with the issue,” he told the Observer.

He said that’s what he is calling for.

“I will go further, I am calling also for a system where that body — whether a commission or a board — that it will have the ability to review archaic laws or laws that are no longer necessary or purposeful in modern-day Jamaica, for instance the Obeah Act, or the Unlawful Possession of Property Act, the new Firearms Act, where it doesn’t really accommodate guilty pleas and some fines that are attached to offences that are [extremely small],” he said, pointing to a 2017 incident in which Tesha Miller, alleged leader of one faction of the St Catherine-based Klansman gang, was fined a minuscule $100 for making a false declaration to an immigration officer at Norman Manley International Airport.

“So we need to have that in place. We can’t wait until we have an embarrassing moment and then we seek to course correct,” the seasoned attorney stated.

The attorneys, during last week’s opening of the Home Circuit Court, had made passing reference to the fact 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, 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.