Holding cell switch to overcome ‘grey area’ in the law

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Prisoners will be kept in cells below Sessions House as they wait to obtain a surety, under amendments passed by the House of Assembly yesterday.

Until now, suspects granted bail have been kept in police cells at the Dame Lois Browne Evans building while they await their surety.

But the Bail Amendment Act clarifies that the Commissioner of Prisons, not the police, now has responsibility for keeping them.

Introducing the bill on behalf of Attorney General Kim Wilson yesterday, Estates Minister Michael Scott said: “Currently the law is not clear as to whether it is the Bermuda Police Service of the Department of Corrections that has legal responsibility and jurisdiction over persons detained under these circumstances until surety is obtained.

“The issue is further compounded by the fact that BPS holding facilities are currently such that persons detained within them are necessarily within the same facilities as the BPS’s offices.

“This in turn triggers the need to apply Police and Criminal Evidence Act provisions which do not contemplate these circumstances.

“The foregoing issue presents itself as urgent as it deals with a regularly occurring situation in criminal matters. The happenstance of those circumstances and the absence of explicit legislative provisions necessarily create a grey area in the law along with uncertainty in justice administration.

“This in turn has potentially consequential ramifications as to the responsibility of authorities to comply as well as their legal accountability; particularly if or when persons being detained under such circumstances were to be harmed or injured.

“The bill effectively addresses the issue by amending the Bail Act 2005 to bridge the existing gap in the law.

“It proposes that such persons are to be remanded into the care and custody of the Commissioner of Prisons until surety is obtained or until final determination of the matter for which bail has been granted.

“This presents itself as the most feasible and practical solution.”

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz described the amendments as a necessary move, but questioned whether it meant prisoners would be sent all the way to Westgate while they await a surety.

Mr Scott replied: “They will solve the problem by redeploying this building’s holding cells. They will be close; not in the Dame Lois Brown Evans building, but in the City of Hamilton.”

The bill was approved with support from all sides of the House.

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