Solving the crime problem

Debbie Jacob

WHEN THE Hugh Wooding Law School recently selected Israel Khan as one of seven lawyers to be honoured at its 50th-anniversary celebrations, I was reminded of the first story I wrote about a man acquitted of murder charges. He was one of Khan’s clients.

The young man had stood on the street and pelted a rock inside a bar. It hit a man in the chest. He gasped, put his hand to his heart, cried out, “Oh God” and fell over dead. It was a bizarre, feature-worthy story that stuck with me for almost 40 years.

I have since written many features about inmates plus columns about the teenagers I taught CXC language classes to in the Youth Training Centre (YTC) and the book Wishing for Wings, which told about juvenile delinquency in this country,

Late last year, I wrote a series of columns on young men who had been in my prison programmes and on my prison debate teams, highlighting their struggles and successes outside of prison. Those stories focused on what made their reintegration into society successful.

After writing that series I wrote a story on Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and the officers from the robbery squad working out of the San Fernando police station who were freed from murder charges. Khan and a team of lawyers had defended the police officers.

These stories are important to tell. They give us a better insight into the chain of judicial procedures that start with someone being arrested – often on hearsay evidence – and often end with not-guilty verdicts. They provide invaluable information about the culture of poverty and crime showing how easy it is to end up in prison in this country. Ignoring such stories makes us nothing more than ostriches with our heads in the sand. Outrage alone doesn’t solve the crime problem. We can’t tackle crime without understanding it.

When it comes to crime, we’re not connecting the dots. In my 15 years of teaching in prison, only one person in my classes, skill-based and debate programmes was convicted of murder, and he won his appeal. The teenagers in YTC got their charges reduced to manslaughter.

News stories show that the detection rate for violent crimes is low. There are many stories we can spin around such statistics, but the one that stands out in my mind is what those numbers show about the division between the police and the public.

There’s far too little co-operation from the public in police investigations, which shows a lack of trust in the police. To solve that problem, we need more visible community policing with daily interaction between the police and the public outside of police stations. We should be seeing more police in our neighbourhoods rather than in police stations.

There should be accountability for police officers’ rudeness when dealing with the public. We need to see police officers punished and dismissed from their jobs for reprehensible behaviour. Transferring questionable officers to other police stations insults the public and undermines trust in the service. Respect is a virtue we all need to earn. Put less emphasis on buying more police cars; focus on educating the police about dealing with the public.

Hate, anger, revenge and shoot-outs won’t help us to curb crime. Those are reactions to a problem out of control – not solutions. Sometimes it seems to appease us for the moment, but it’s never a long-term solution to a problem.

The question is how do we deal with the marginalised people in this society? The solution needs to bridge the divide, offer more relevant education, teach better communication skills and create more socio-economic equity.

Our sluggish legal system does not help matters either. Waiting in remand for ten to 14 years for a criminal case to be heard in court doesn’t inspire faith in this country’s legal system. It embitters young men, leads to more confrontation with the police and a vicious cycle of crime spiralling out of control.

We live in a country where there’s access to legal representation. That’s a right we should never take for granted. Criminal law reminds us of the legal pillar on which the legal profession rests: you are innocent until proven guilty – though the reverse feels true for those behind bars.

We should have more appreciation for everyone down in the trenches with a role to play in solving crime – that includes educators, journalists, lawyers, the police and ordinary people in our community. We need to understand everyone’s role in solving this problem.

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