Gleaner Editor-in-Chief Garfield Grandison presents the Silver Pen Award to Velma L. Hylton, QC, at the newspaper's central Kingston offices, last Thursday. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

Velma L. Hylton, QC, former deputy director of public prosecutions, is urging the Government to reconsider its proposed anti-crime measures, which have been sent to a joint select committee for deliberations.

Hylton said some of the proposed measures would increase a backlog in the court system.

She was speaking with The Gleaner last Thursday after receiving the newspaper's Silver Pen Award for her letter to the editor, headlined 'The police, judiciary and defence counsel'. It was published on July 19.

"The lock-ups across the island will be so full that they will be literally sitting on each other," said Hylton, who has been practising law for more than 40 years.

Reconsider anti-crime plans

Like many of her colleagues, who have been voicing their opinions publicly, Hylton said the proposal to refuse bail to persons charged with serious crimes, and repeat offenders, for the first 60 days after their arrests, needs serious reconsideration.

The lawyer, whose office is based in Spur Tree Hill, Manchester, feels that the proposal for persons convicted of gun crimes to serve 10 years before being eligible for parole, was an attempt by the legislature to interfere with the judiciary.

Hylton, a native of St Elizabeth, also worked within the judicial system in The Bahamas and eastern Caribbean states before returning to Jamaica in 2000. Since then, she has been in private practice in Manchester.