The days of prison buses speeding through Nassau to get inmates to court may soon come to an end now that the government has introduce a criminal integrated system that will allow suspects to attend to court via video conferencing.
At a news conference at the Attorney General Office on Monday Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said the new system will seek to link relative stakeholders like the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), the Magistrates’ Courts, Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP), the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA), the Department of Rehabilitative Centre and the offices in Grand Bahama in swift justice meetings.
“In relation to The Bahamas, this video conferencing link will further improve the relationship between our stakeholders in both the criminal and civil side,” she said.
“It is of particular importance in the history of The Bahamas for the Swift Justice initiative that was relaunched on June 6, 2012.”
This week, the video conferencing will be used for the first time in a Swift Justice meeting.
“This historical event represents a red letter day in the administration of justice in particular the criminal and civil but in this instance we are focusing on the criminal side as we plan to expand the use of video conferencing to the civil side in the short term,” the attorney general said.
“This marks the first time in the history of The Bahamas that we now have a secured criminal justice system network between sister agencies involved in the administration of justice.”
Mrs. Maynard-Gibson said this will also serve as a money and time saver.
“This will substantially eliminate the traffic hazard to frequently caused by the transport of prisoners from Her Majesty’s Prisons to court,” she said.
“There are other benefits to be derived from the video conferencing. It allows the government to recognise tremendous savings to reduce the amount spent on travel, accommodations for witnesses and experts and I must tell you that expenditure on this item constitutes a very significant part of my ministry’s budget.”
State Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez said the government is also looking to purchase an electronic library.
“This will not only be available in the Attorney’s General Office but the judiciary. It will save large sums of monies and have access to the same judicial material instead of paying the same monies for the same case. That is going to bring tremendous savings as well to our operation and to the operations of the courts,” he said.
The government is also looking to build a new Magistrates’ Complex in Grand Bahama.
“Everything we can do will be done in order to ease the burden,” Mrs. Maynard-Gibson said.
The criminal integrated system is expected to be introduced in Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma in the first quarter of next year.
