Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley Calls Out Mental Health Gaps in Justice System

Senior criminal attorney Dickie Bradley is calling out the government over what he describes as Belize’s chronic failure to provide adequate mental health services within the justice system. Bradley’s comments come in the wake of the recent murder case involving a sixteen-year-old suspect, who, as the matter progresses through the courts, will more than likely be subjected to a psychiatric evaluation.  According to Bradley, the situation once again exposes the country’s severe shortage of trained mental health professionals and the absence of a proper psychiatric facility capable of handling court-ordered assessments and treatment. He noted that the issue extends far beyond this single case, pointing out that dozens of inmates currently on remand at the Belize Central Prison have reportedly been waiting for psychiatric evaluations for extended periods, causing delays in their cases and raising concerns about access to justice.  Bradley argued that the inability of the state to provide these critical services undermines the integrity of the court system itself.

Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney: “I’m going to use the old fashioned word. There were over 92 crazy people in the prison in this country. Recently, Dr. Lyndon Jones, one of the best defense lawyers that is coming up in the country, was speaking to me on this issue that there are forty human beings when they appear in front of the courts of this country the magistrates and the judges see that something is not correct and they order a psychiatric evaluation. It is like speaking into the wind. There is no psychiatrist. You touched a very big issue. I didn’t know you all dealt with it already. How could you have a country and have no psychiatrist ? How could that be ? And how can you have…listen how unfair it is to the prison officers and the staff at the prison that they are called upon now to be dealing with crazy people. They can’t handle the ones that aren’t crazy what do you think of people don’t know where they are and are not afraid to get violent and so on. Even when the white colonial masters were in charge of all of us and owned us and owned our country they had a place for the mentally ill. Belize doesn’t have that. This is a shocking, shameful situation.”

Bradley further explained that, based on a ruling from the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Belizean state is obligated to fund services required for court proceedings in the interest of justice. He said that includes psychiatric evaluations and mental health support for defendants when ordered by the courts.