While acknowledging that the traditional strategy of punishment and jail is ineffective, there has been a constant need for a localized regional approach to combating crime and social violence.
The regional law enforcement agencies will need to work together more to combat crime.
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These were some of the suggestions made by a panel of experts who took part in a regional town hall meeting on the first day of the recent three-day seventh biannual law conference, which was held at the Hilton Barbados.
Pre-trial detention and sentencing practices have not altered in the Caribbean since the 1800s, according to Dr. Janeille Matthews, deputy dean of the law faculty at the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus (UWI). She referred to an analysis done by a Cave Hill law student in collaboration with the University of Leicester and the law department.
She noted, “In large part, we keep doing what we have always done so that many of our well-intended attempts at reform end up resembling what was proffered 50, even 85 years ago.”
