THE EDITOR, Sir:

Every evening, a lot of people go straight home and detain themselves out of fear. They choose their routes carefully and they avoid certain places. The problem is that nowhere is safe these days.

What is strange is that many of those same people are asking: Why is the Government trying to take away our civil liberties by detaining people for 72 hours? It would seem that criminals have already done that.

Another question being asked is: How will detaining people for 72 hours reduce crime? The simple answer is that it cant. Up to now, the police can detain a suspect, for up to 24 hours, without charge, after which, bail has to be offered.

What is now being sought is an extension of time to allow the investigations to be completed and the case to be properly prepared for trial. We often hear that the prosecution lost the case because the case was too weak or the case was poorly prepared by the police, or, in the worst scenario, the suspect had to be released on bail after the 24 hours and evidence was destroyed, witnesses intimidated or killed and the case thrown out because of insufficient evidence.

The notion that the police will detain us all for 72 hours is just absurd. The real question to be asked is: Who will bail us out? We have been living under siege for a very long time by detaining ourselves and restricting our own movements, and it is full time now that we complain about that because we dont deserve to live like this.

Justice system at fault

The problem is not just the Bail Act. The entire justice system is at fault. Justice reform is under way but, if what we were told is true, that the amendment to the electoral law took 27 years to be passed into law, Heaven help us.

Law enforcement must be complemented by an efficient justice system behind it, as ours makes no sense at all. A suspect will be released, not because he is innocent, but because the law is too weak, (riddled with loopholes), or simply because some fines are so ridiculously low that they actually reward wrongdoing.

In other words, the law is not a shackle anymore. What does it profit a police officer to arrest someone, they go to court, plead guilty and pay the maximum fine, under the law, out of their pocket, and walk out of court laughing at the police officer?

No wonder there is rampant indiscipline and lawlessness in the society. There is absolutely no respect for law and order because we have failed to keep the laws abreast of the times, over the years.

What we have to do, in the interim, is to focus on the major crimes that are being committed and fix the relevant laws quickly. Only so can law enforcement begin to be effective.

Sometimes, when the police see how easy it is to commit crime and get away with it in this country, some of them are tempted to try it. We must remove that temptation and make crime a very unattractive enterprise, and so begin to free up the courts.

The focus of law enforcement can then shift from catching criminals to deterring people from committing crime. At that point, there will hardly be need to detain anyone for 24 hours, 72 hours, or worse, 60 days. Until the question remains: Who will bail us out?

I am, etc.,

VICTOR E. NUGENT

PO.Box 206

St Ann's Bay