Aileen Wolfe-Stephens (left), deputy commissioner of corrections and Norma Spence-Jarrett, deputy commissioner of custodial services, with Senator Trevor MacMillan, minister of national security. Wolfe-Stephens and Spence-Jarrett had just received the 'First Bar to the Medal of Honour for Meritorious Service' from the Department of Correctional Services during a function at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew yesterday. Shirley Johnson, director of community services at the correctional services (not in photo), also received the award. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
National Security Minister Colonel Trevor MacMillan is insisting that the Government will not bend under pressure from interest groups who have been criticising some of its recently proposed anti-crime initiatives.
MacMillan's comments came yesterday, the same day the Jamaican Bar Association placed on record its apprehension over any measures that would effectively reduce or take away the court's power to determine bail or lengths of sentences.
Addressing journalists after a ceremony to honour correctional officers at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew yesterday, MacMillan said Jamaicans must accept change.
He said given the country's current crime situation, the announced measures - which include the refusal of bail for 60 days to persons charged with serious crimes and repeat offenders - were the best for the country at this time.
"I am not a lawyer, I'm not a 'constitutionist', and I live in a world in which people are being killed and, therefore, we have to do something to stop the killing," MacMillan declared.
"We are living in some horrible, dangerous times. We have to respect people's rights. I respect the human rights of people, but I respect the human rights of those who have been killed also."
Bar calls for comprehensive approach
However, the Bar Association said it remained convinced that a comprehensive approach, including social re-engineering, poverty alleviation, reduction of criminal influence on political and governmental activity and rehabilitation must be implemented if long-term results are to be achieved.
"We further believe that emphasis needs to be placed on strengthening the police's investigative resources, rather than according to them discretion which ought properly to be proposed in judicial authority," a Bar Association spokesman said in a release.
During his main address, MacMillan called for the 43 correctional officers being honoured for long service to support the recent crime-fighting measures outlined by Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
"We can't be resistant to changes, but want changes at the
same time," MacMillan told them.
After Golding announced the initiatives last Tuesday, human-rights advocates and the legal fraternity launched a firestorm of criticism.
In addition to the amendments to the provisions for bail, the prime minister said persons convicted of gun crimes and sentenced to serve more than 10 years would be eligible for parole after a decade.
In defending the Government's anti-crime strategies yesterday, MacMillan said the crime measures were designed to remove some of the criminals and "evil people" out of a particular area, so that the security forces and social intervention activists could move in and rehabilitate the communities.
