Sykes laments incomplete court infrastructural works

HEAD of the judiciary Chief Justice Bryan Sykes says with the Government is on its “third strategy” to produce new courtrooms, long-standing infrastructure challenges which have humbugged several courts across the island must also be resolved so that trials can take place within a suitable time frame. According to the chief justice, the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, the Family Court also in downtown Kingston, the Family Court in St James, and the Manchester Parish Court in Mandeville are prime examples. “Last year before Hurricane Melissa arrived, a contractor turned up at the Supreme Court and began some work, well, would you believe one year later the work hasn’t finished, I have not seen this contractor for the last six or seven [months].

I don’t know what has become of the contractor, I don’t know whether he is dead or alive and the consequence has been that one of our courtrooms in the Gun Court [Division] has been out of commission because they have to house the staff, the Supreme Court is literally bursting at the seams, so we had to house them in that court while the contractor commenced his work on the room near to the library upstairs,” the chief justice shared. He said subsequent rains led to the flooding of the library. “Since about February/March or so, the contractor has simply disappeared and the work is still unfinished and so consequently, we are one courtroom less and so three judges we would have had sitting there are down to two.

So when you have legislation that does not incentivise guilty pleas and you are one courtroom short, why are we surprised that the clearance rate is 66 per cent,” Sykes stated. Justice Sykes, in pointing out that incomplete infrastructural works contribute to backlog issues, emphasised that renovations handled by the Court Administrative Division do not produce “the same difficulties”. “Infrastructure is very, very important for the members of the public, [and] the members of staff and I come back to the Traffic Court near to Sabina Park, we now know that no construction can go on the floor above because the building was never constructed to take that even though that was the plan, the engineers have advised us that it can’t support any construction on the top there.

So, too, the Family Court that is on Duke Street, I think it is one of our most distressing situations; I don’t know if you have ever passed …