THE EDITOR: Has anyone even thought of asking prisoners which they would prefer? A judge-only trial or a trial with jurors? One could well imagine that if you are withering away in jail a judge-only trial will sound like the ultimate gateway to early release.

TT is in the middle of a horrendous crime surge. There are arrests being made and the prison population is on the increase. Unless something urgent is decided, will we end up with prisoners living in tents on the prison grounds and using plastic buckets for toilets?

Room must be made. The choice must be offered to each inmate. The faster or the slower route?

The Attorney General is quite right. Very few citizens are salivating over being called to serve as jurors. Plus of course TT is only 1.4 million citizens where everybody is everybody's friend or family or went to the same school. The juror pool is likely to be scant of suitable fish.

It is my unsolicited view that once you are not charged with rape, murder or violence using a gun, the prisoner should be given an ankle bracelet and told to report to the nearest police station once a week.

How many more years will it take for the Government and Opposition to agree on how to treat with the scandalous backlog of cases? Another year of special joint select committee meetings during which time the prison population is growing?

I do not wish to go down the road about why there are thousands of criminal cases piling up for so many years in TT. The legal fraternity knows why.

If 1,500 inmates are awaiting trial, bet your bottom dollar 1,000 will choose to go the faster route. A luck-and-chance verdict under a sole judge is better than suffering in the Remand Yard.

Having to wear an ankle bracelet may be considered a most acceptable inconvenience. Anything is better than languishing in prison with no trial date in sight.

LYNETTE JOSEPH

Diego Martin

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