NASSAU, BAHAMAS — New legislation is on the table for 2023 as the government and law enforcement seeks to make changes to the drafted Parole and Reentry Act which is expected to be made as early as January.
Minister of National Security, Wayne Munroe said that they are also looking at bringing back the Swift Justice Program and school early intervention programs for youth.
Munroe explained that sought-after changes to the Parole and Reentry Act would help to detour individuals who have committed crimes to become repeat offenders, by holding them to a higher standard of accountability.
“We hope to in the new year move away from this concept that when you are sent to prison, you get four months off your sentence automatically, and you never have to account for it; so if you get out after eight months and you commit a crime the first day after you get out you never account for the four months that you were given off,” Munroe said.
The National Security Minister said that they are still in the process of revision, making minor adjustments to the proposed draft legislation. He explained that the document was produced in 2016, by an appointed committee but was disregarded when the government changed, and this administration has decided to revisit it.
“We are going to be seeking to introduce a system of parole where you will be accountable for every day that you are sentenced, even if you get out four months early if you commit an offense on that day, you will go back to prison to serve those four months because you have decided that you don’t want to behave.
“[…] It (the draft) did a lot of work looking at systems in the U.S. and in the Caribbean islands around us and it’s a product that is at the point where it can be rolled out, you cannot in my mind get four months off and not be accountable for it once you get out.”
Furthermore, as the country heads into the New Year, Munroe said that his ministry will continue with the crime strategy which has been a holistic approach as law enforcement strives to be more deliberate and consistent with combating crime and catching the perpetrators.
“Once they are caught we have to take steps now to seek to speed up the court process. We’re trying to bring Swift Justice back, once they are delivered to the correctional system we’re seeking to put in place a proper high-medium prison with strategies to correct behavior because 98 percent of them will be released back to the community.
“Prison, to our knowledge has been a breeding ground for criminals so we had to stomp that out and reduce the number of criminals created in prison,” Munroe stated.
In the meantime, the public remains concerned over crime matters with this year’s murder count at 128 having surpassed 2021’s 119, and also reaching the highest count in recent years since 2015.
Acknowledging the severity of the situation, Munroe maintains that they are not counting numbers, but rather, are more focused on how to solve crime issues overall.
“One murder is one murder too many, when we somehow believe that there is an acceptable level of murder, that tells us that we are really off track and we don’t get the point.
“World-wide there has been an explosion of violent crime after the end of the covid lockdowns the reality is this is a making of society. Our position is, one murder is one murder too much,” Munroe said.
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