Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterA LARGE number of criminal cases in which accused persons are appealing to have their convictions overturned are being held up because of a defective printer.
Several lawyers have complained to The Sunday Gleaner that when they ask about the transcripts for the cases, they are told that the printer is not working.
The prices for printers in some stores range from $3,000 to $10,000.
"The expensive printers are faster," a sales clerk explained on Friday.
Court reporters at the Supreme Court are responsible for the preparation of the transcripts. The court reporters have to print the notes of evidence from the computers but the two printers have been out of service since last month. One of the printers was repaired and returned to the Court Reporters Department last week but the problem has not been rectified.
"People are languishing in custody because of this problem and it is not fair to them," one lawyer said yesterday.
"How can the justice system be efficient if they can't put in place something as simple as a printer," another lawyer said. The lawyer said he had been to the Supreme Court twice last week to get the transcript and finds it hard to understand that "a simple printer" is the problem. Without the transcripts, lawyers are unable to prepare cases for appeal.
The problem in the justice system is compounded by the fact that the transcripts which were printed from the computer before the printers broke down cannot be copied to distribute to the lawyers because only one of the two photocopy machines at the Supreme Court is working. Late last year the two machines broke down. One was repaired in January this year but that one cannot accommodate the photocopying of the large volume of transcripts.
Michael Cohen, senior public relations officer in the Ministry of Justice, told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday afternoon that the Office Services Department in the Ministry "will be sending this very evening" to check on the printers.
A statement issued on Friday from the Ministry of Justice stated that the "machine presently being used needs critical parts which are being sourced by the local service agent, who have also been notified to immediately effect whatever repair is needed to sustain the useful life of this equipment."
In addition, a new digital photocopy machine, built to handle high-volume work, is being acquired for the Supreme Court, under the Social Conflict and Legal Reform (SCLR) project. In the meanwhile, the supplier has agreed to provide a similar machine on loan "and this is expected to be in place during the week of February 10, 2003".
The Sunday Gleaner checked on Friday but the machine was not on loan at the Supreme Court.
Court reporters complained their department got six new stenograph machines last week but those machines could not be used when they go to the Circuit Courts outside of Kingston. They said that laptop computers were needed to be attached to the computers for them to work effectively outside of Kingston. The department has not received any laptop computers.
In November last year, the court reporters had complained bitterly about the defective stenograph machines which were assigned to them.
