By Prior Beharry
PRISONERS who are in jail for minor offences and non-violent crimes will get a chance of early freedom.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said his office will approach the court in a similar way it did to free people who were incarcerated for marijuana offences when those laws were changed. He said that process dealt with 516 cases.
Speaking at the government’s daily news conference on Thursday to update the population on measures which it was taking to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Al-Rawi made the announcement to ease the prison population.
Al-Rawi said there were 3,959 people in the ten prisons and two child rehabilitation centres in Trinidad and Tobago. He said this number comprised 3,829 men and 130 women. He said there were 1,115 inmates incarcerated for murder.
He said senior counsel Fayad Hosein, who was in charge of the marijuana court application will also head this one where the Office of the Attorney General will approach the court.
Al-Rawi said in this process, before the judge will also be the Registrar of the Supreme Court, the Commissioner of Prisons, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Public Defender’s Division and the Commissioner of Police.
He said the judge will consider bail for people who were not convicted or have an appeal pending after they were convicted.
Al-Rawi said there was a third category of people who were imprisoned for minor offences and/or had a short period left on their sentences. He said this category could approach the President via the Mercy Committee to have their sentences commuted, pardoned or varied.
The AG said in the prisons now were 149 people on bail but who could not post it and 239 convicted for non-violent offences.
Al-Rawi gave examples of minor offences as failure to pay maintenance, resisting arrest, traffic offences and obscene language as well as people who are incarcerated for marijuana trafficking in just over 30 or 60 grammes of the herb.
He said he was taking a careful approach where all the data will be brought to the court and all voices will be heard. He said the sittings could be done virtually as the court process allows this during the Covid-19 restrictions and prisons’ facilities transmissions were being set up.
Al-Rawi said before the judge will be all the material for him to decide whether there was a victim impact to consider.
The AG said his office was going to approach the court on Thursday.
