1 week ago
3
Senior Reporter
Government may soon look at returning criminal matters to the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court, to alleviate some of the pressure being put on police stations now being used as virtual courts.
Justice Minister Devesh Maharaj made the comment yesterday, after he and Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander yesterday kicked off a series of scheduled visits to police stations which have been converted into virtual courtrooms.
Speaking with reporters as they emerged from the Besson Street Police Station, Port-of-Spain, following an hour-long visit, Maharaj said, “We visited to understand firsthand, the question of virtual courtrooms being held in the police stations, and the police are very inconvenienced by a lot of their space being taken up with the computers in the virtual courtroom.”
Maharaj added, “We are trying to find a quick solution, a short-term solution in the first instance, to alleviate the problem.”
He said Government had found a solution but was reluctant to disclose it just yet.
“We have some visits to make to the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court to see if they can facilitate what we are thinking about.”
Referring specifically to the situation at the Besson Street State, he said, “At least four to five rooms, they have been discommoded. The ID parade room, which is used by the police, of course, for identification by victims of crime, is totally unusable because it has been converted to a virtual courtroom.”
Describing this as highly irregular, Maharaj said once an identification parade has to be done now, “the police have to go up, possibly, to the Barataria Police Station and sometimes, as far as La Horquetta.”
And with the Port-of-Spain Division having a catchment of 15 police stations under its purview, Maharaj said every Monday morning was “pretty busy” and that the situation was “close to boiling point.”
He said they planned to conclude all visits in the Port-of-Spain Division by the end of the week, as there were six or seven more spots they needed to assess in other policing divisions.
Inspector Joel Braithwaite, who is in charge of the Besson Street station, welcomed the visit by the ministers, as he said the issue of justice was being overlooked and bypassed in the current arrangement.
He argued, “We cannot really perceive justice as being done if you are facing courts in the very same building that you were arrested, interrogated, and detained in. There is no real perception of justice.”
Braithwaite said the interview and identification parade rooms at his station had been repurposed as virtual courtrooms since the COVID-19 pandemic, which had led to the closure of the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court. He said a recommendation has been put forth to conduct a site visit to the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court, “to see exactly what is needed to get that building back and fully functional.”
Braithwaite added, “As far as we are aware, the Magistrates’ Court has been refurbished and is ready for use, and is just sitting there, empty right now.”
The Besson Street Police Station currently serves as the virtual courtroom site for the North Eastern Division, the Port-of-Spain Division, and the Western Division, which results in prisoners being brought to the station daily so they can access the virtual court system using a single computer. This, he said, had led to the court running very late, where previously they would have been able to have ten courts sitting simultaneously.
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