Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall recenrly conducted a public awareness session on restorative justice at, Bushlot in Berbice, as part of the activities under the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) programme.

Restorative Justice is an approach that seeks to repair the harm caused by the offender, by providing an opportunity for the victim and the perpetrator to interrogate the issue which caused the problem and make amends either by the payment of compensation or on such terms agreed upon by the parties

Earlier this year, Parliament enacted the Restorative Justice Bill as a measure to overcome prison overcrowding by reducing pre-trial detention, reducing recidivism and increasing the use of alternative sentencing, among other things

Significantly, restorative justice allows the lay public, such as community leaders, religious leaders, teachers, etc, to play a central role both in the formal legal system as well as outside of the legal system.

The Attorney General explained that in the formal legal system, cases will be referred either by the Magistrate or the Director of Public Prosecutions to trained restorative justice officers located within each Magisterial district and these persons will manage the engagement between the perpetrator and the victim.

“In the non-formal legal system, teachers, for example, once properly trained, will be able to detect manifestations of problems in children’s behaviour in schools. They will be required to interrogate these situations to determine the root causes. It may be an abusive environment at home. Once the problem is detected, steps will be taken to address it at this early stage. This simple remedy can prevent a child from being prone to criminal conduct,” the Attorney General said.

The Attorney General also clarified that the restorative justice concept is not open to all criminal offences but a few minor or petty offences which can be dealt with at a community level and allow for direct rehabilitative intervention.

In this regard, offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, sexual offences, offences involving minors, and other violent offences are exempted from the restorative justice.

Director of Restorative Justice programme, Seelall Persaud, in a brief remarks explained that he is currently executing a pilot project involving several communities on the East Coast of Demerara.

Once that pilot is successfully completed, he said the system will be replicated across the administrative regions of the country.

Related posts:

Criminal justice system in need of reform and restoration -says Acting Police Commissioner Caribbean Legal Community must shape up to meet technological age and new frontiers of electronic justice US Human rights report highlights Guyana Police abuses and concerns about Justice system New Justice of Appeal appointed