$1m fine for tampering with tracking device under Bail Act
Published:Saturday | October 7, 2023 | 12:09 AM
Members of the Upper House on Friday passed the Bail Act 2023, which will repeal and replace the current 2000 legislation. The bill was passed with a single amendment.
Leader of Government Business in the Senate Kamina Johnson Smith piloted the bill, which was overhauled at the joint select committee stage and again saw considerable adjustments when it was debated in the House of Representatives.
In making far-reaching changes, Johnson Smith said that a number of things were considered, including internationally accepted best practices, changes that have taken place in the society, and the scale and characteristics of criminal conduct in Jamaica.
The sole amendment to the bill was an adjustment to the Clause 8.
The original version sets out what constitutes an offence when a defendant causes the removal of an electronic tracking device that is part of the arrangement for bail to be granted.
However, the clause was expanded to state that a defendant who, without lawful excuse, removes an electronic tracking device or causes the removal of an electronic tracking device or the impairment of any function of an electronic device, contrary to a requirement imposed on that defendant, commits an offence.
The punishment for breaching this provision upon summary conviction before a parish court is a fine not exceeding $1 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both the fine and prison term.
The Bail Act 2023 will, among other things, allow for the grant of bail at the pre-charge, post-charge and post-conviction stages in defined cases.
BILL HAS EVOLVED
Opposition Spokesperson on Justice Senator Donna Scott-Mottley noted that the bill had evolved significantly from where it started. She said that the Opposition had no intention of being contentious over the proposed law.
When the bill was first debated in the Lower House, the Opposition called for changes to aspects of the legislation and some adjustments were made.
“Crime becomes uglier and uglier every day, and the truth about it is that the society is becoming numbed by what happens, to the point where we no longer bawl out when a child is hurt or murdered; our women are slaughtered back to back, three in a week,” Scott-Mottley said.
She said that while the Opposition had some reservations on aspects of the bill, it made the decision to support the Government in its thrust to deal with the crime problem, which had almost become normalised in society.
“We have a duty because of how we feel about Jamaica and our feelings about this nation that sometimes we have to compromise on some things,” the opposition senator said.
The memorandum of objects and reasons of the bill states that a decision has been taken to enact legislation to repeal and replace the Bail Act, having regard to the fact that the existing law was enacted prior to amendments to the fundamental rights and freedoms provisions contained in Chapter III of the Constitution of Jamaica.
It also highlights a need for new provisions to address circumstances peculiar to Jamaica, and the need for greater clarity in certain provisions of the existing law.