Our Courthouses Need Justice
We are not doing enough to protect our physical foundation of our judicial system. While we can relate to the 1865 rebellion where an angry crowd converged at the courthouse in Morant Bay St. Thomas and set it ablaze, other incidents continued to haunt us thereafter. In 2007 another fire destroyed the same courthouse. These incidents leave charred memories in our minds as Jamaican courthouses continue to suffer from arson, vandalism and neglect. And as we continue to fan the flames, we urge the authorities to protect the legacy of the symbol of fortitude and freedom of our emblem of Justice.
Fires destroyed the courthouse in St. James in 1831 and another courthouse in Falmouth, Trelawny in 1926. The Spanish Town courthouse raged in flames in 1986 and 2017, and fire destroyed the Port Antonio 2004. An estimated 245 million was set aside to restore this treasured landmark.
The blazing trail continued and the courthouse in Mandeville was destroyed fire in 2019, and quite recently fire gutted the courthouse in St. Ann this year and In September 2022, money was reportedly missing from the Spanish Town courthouse after another reported fire.
This brings to ten, the number of reported courthouse fires over the span of nearly two centuries. Although this seems to be a wide gap, it still is a cause for concern since courthouses are treasured monuments that uphold the constitution of our land.
Billions of dollars have been spent restoring our courthouses which brings the question: are we doing enough to protect the lives of individuals who work in our Judicial system? Are we also protecting the sensitive documents and materials inside these buildings?
I recall Chief Justice Sykes pleading to the government to protect members of his counterparts in the lower tier of his judiciary system. As the country grapples with so many crimes, it would be unfortunate to see our court clerks become victims of crime and cases being dismissed due to lack of supporting evidence.
We must endeavor to protect these important structures within our country and reduce the deliberations of “nolle prosequi”, which is most times extremely disheartening for victims of crimes.
To partially remedy this, we could use technology to digitize our work. This could secure confidentiality and privacy. By doing this, incidents such as unforeseen acts of God, attempts of arson, vandalism or any other torts, will have limited effects due to information being secured in the clouds.
If the Kingston and St, Andrew Parish Courthouses stood during the great 1907 earthquake, nothing should destroy them now.
Based on the evidence revealed in the article, it is without a doubt that we are not doing enough to protect our courts of justice. If we could have more smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and effective sprinkler systems installed within these premises, we could reduce the wanton destruction of our courthouses.
In addition, if we conduct extra electrical inspection for older buildings and train additional watchmen or security officers, we could see less vandalism and fires against these structures. The building, the contents and individuals who are employed the judiciary, need to be protected at all cost.
