Electronic Monitoring Legislation

National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest told the Journal as much when queried on the status of the legislation.

"We are at the stage where we are reviewing them. We read those bills for a first time, and originally there were three bills. We took one of the bills and split it up into four separate parts so that we could give greater focus. We didn’t change any aspect of the bill, but we felt that if we dealt with the four bills separately that we could really give greater focus to them," he said.

National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest

The four separate bills proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, the Mental Health Act, the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act and the Penal Code.

The Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2008 is the piece of legislation that makes provision for electronic monitoring of persons charged with a crime in lieu of incarceration.

"We would like, as best as possible – and in politics and parliamentary democracies it’s difficult to say what happens in parliamentary debates – but as best we can, we’d like to have a settled bill when we start the debate," he said.

"So we will have discussions with the opposition. I’ve tentatively spoken to the leader of opposition business, Dr. Bernard Nottage, and he and I will have some discussions, and then he will meet with his team and we will talk about some of the issues that they have some difficulty with, and we’ll try as best as possible to have an agreed legislative position prior to the debate which we hope to begin when we come back from the summer recess on September 17."

Mr. Turnquest acknowledged that when the bill comes up for debate in September, that debate will have a fairly wide ambit.

"Obviously, we will have a debate on crime when it comes up. Their position may differ in terms of we’re doing from what they’re doing, and obviously they may have some issues they wish to raise, and we’ll respond."

He said the government had received proposals already to provide electronic monitoring services.

"We have received, that I can recall, four proposals, but it may be more. I now have someone going back into all the files so that when we come forward with (the bill), we’re sure that we’re sure that we’re dealing with all the companies who have brought forward proposals with regard to electronic monitoring," the minister said.

"There’s a firm in Israel that’s interested, there’s an American firm, obviously, and there’s a Bahamian firm that obviously is seeking to buy the technology and provide it locally. So these are all that have come forward so far."

The minister said the whole idea of electronic monitoring would have a tremendous impact.

He pointed out that there were 628 people on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison as of Monday, July 21.

"The Remand Centre was designed to hold 350 persons, and there are no more than that in there, but persons on remand are housed elsewhere. That’s where the overcrowding occurs," Mr. Turnquest reiterated.

"So quite naturally, if we were to deal with persons on remand, we are able to move the process along more quickly."

Jamaica’s Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security Senator Arthur Williams disclosed that a date has already been set for the launch of that country’s electronic monitoring pilot programme.

"The electronic monitoring pilot project is one that I hope, and expect will succeed and that thereafter we in Jamaica will move swiftly to the legislative changes similar to those proposed in The Bahamas, and so enhance our criminal justice system," Senator Williams said during debate in Jamaica’s Senate last Friday.

Among the Bahamian proposals Jamaica is looking at are: a system to track both convicted and suspected criminals; requiring persons convicted of sexual offences to notify the police of their current place of work and of any educational, sporting, civic or other activities they are involved in; and giving the court authority to order that persons convicted of any offence, punishable with imprisonment for three years or less, be subjected to electronic monitoring in lieu of serving time in prison.

The Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2008 sets out the circumstances in which electronic monitoring will be allowed.

A person may petition the Crown to be subject to electronic monitoring in lieu of prison time in some circumstances; the court may impose electronic monitoring as a condition of bail, and the court may also order electronic monitoring if a person is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment for three years or less.

The amendment also allows for the criminal penalty of "accessory after the fact," and a concomitant maximum sentence of life imprisonment for accessory after the fact to murder or treason.