REGIONAL COLLABORATION THE WAY TO GO

Regional cooperation must be at the centre of Barbados’ efforts to modernise its criminal justice system, particularly as the island confronts pressing issues related to witness protection and gang violence, Attorney General Dale Marshall has said.

Addressing fellow law officers from across the Caribbean on Thursday, Marshall argued that shared crime challenges demand shared solutions, as Barbados continues to refine legislation aimed at strengthening public safety.

He was speaking during the opening of the two-day Pace Justice Second Attorneys-General Roundtable at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, where regional attorneys general gathered to exchange ideas and policy responses to increasingly transnational criminal activity.

“For too many years we have approached our challenges in an insular and siloed way, when in truth and in fact, because of the commonality of our challenges, we really ought to be pooling our efforts,” Marshall said in brief remarks.

He stressed that Caribbean jurisdictions need not duplicate work already done elsewhere in the region.

“We should be pooling our efforts, whether in terms of intellect, processes or institutions, to find solutions,” he added, suggesting that territories avoid the need to “reinvent the wheel” when proven legislative models already exist.

Marshall cited Barbados’ Witness Protection Act, passed last year, as a clear example of regional cooperation shaping local reform.

“When we were looking at our witness protection legislation, Barbados found it extraordinarily beneficial to be able to look at the Jamaica model and the St Vincent model,” he said.

Similarly, he explained that the island’s work on gang legislation has been informed by approaches adopted in neighbouring states.

“When we talked about gang legislation, we looked at the Jamaica model… in other areas we’ve looked at the Trinidad model,” Marshall said, noting that these precedents helped reduce costly trial-and-error policymaking.

He also pointed to previous roundtable discussions that have already produced tangible outcomes in Barbados.

“Last year we talked about plea-bargaining legislation; Barbados now has plea-bargaining legislation,” he said. “We also spoke about judge-alone trials; Barbados now has judge-alone trial legislation.”

Looking ahead, Marshall said the current discussions on witness protection and gang legislation were especially timely, describing both as hot-button issues for Barbados. (PR/GIS)