Frustrated judge tells prisoners to go on strike

A high court judge made an unusual recommendation Monday. Justice Herbert Volney told prisoners they should go on a hunger strike to draw attention to the need for an overhaul of the criminal justice system.

Volney said there is a perception that those in authority are indifferent to the needs of the Judiciary and called the situation "scandalous" and "a national disgrace".

And he had a comment on where the government puts priority. "You will quicker see another flag for two million dollars outside before Legal Aid fees are raised," Volney said in reference to the monster flag that the government put up recently as a symbol of national pride.

He said the government continues to profess that it is attending to the problem of increasing legal aid fees but that matter gets low priority to others, such as the controversial flag in Port of Spain.

"A next one is coming. This time for four million dollars," he said.

Volney made the comments while dealing with several matters before him in San Fernando, including one dating to 1998 in which two police officers were charged as accomplices in the escape of alleged drug dealer Deochan Ramdhanie from the Princes Town magistrate's court.

Ramdhanie and his father, Mantoor, were recaptured in Venezuela one month later.

Volney said the officers were due to go on trial in 2003 in a matter that is 11 years old. "This is scandalous...Let it not be said that the matter was not prosecuted because the High Court did not impress upon the attorneys that it should start," he said.

Lawyers were not prepared so the judge adjourned the matter to December 1.

Speaking about the backlog in cases, Volney said the country needs at least six full-time criminal courts operating in San Fernando alone.

"If this does not happen, it will get from bad to worse. But no one is taking on the judge. They prefer to call me controversial but nothing is being done about it," he said.

"When you read that I am gone, you will know why. It’s not because I can’t do the work, it is because there is no support for the Judiciary...We are going backwards," he said adding, "I have reached the end of the line and no one seems to be doing anything about it."

And he told the prisoners in the dock: "What you need to do is go on a hunger strike so that those responsible will feel the pain of those languishing in prison. I am sure there are some accused in prison who probably can’t even remember what they are in prison for."

Volney is on record as saying he and some of his colleagues would never be considered for promotion because they are independent judges. "We will rule and continue to rule...with integrity and justly," he said last year.