SHOULD JAMAICANS HAVE THEIR PRISON SENTENCE REDUCED FOR VICIOUS CRIMES? Some Jamaicans opposed to sentence-reduction initiative

BY RACQUEL PORTER Observer staff reporter porterr@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, December 15, 2017

Some Jamaicans believe that criminals who plead guilty to heinous crimes should not benefit from the Sentence Reduction Programme today.

In this December 2016 file photo people congregate
outside Crystal Towers Apartment complex on Old Hope
Road in St Andrew as news spread that a woman's
body had been found there. 

In fact, they pointed to Phillip Brown, who admitted to killing his pregnant girlfriend while she was asleep last December at their Crystal Towers apartment.

The Sentence Reduction Day initiative provides the platform for individuals to enter a guilty plea and benefit from a maximum 50 per cent reduction in their sentence, according to the provisions of the Criminal Justice Administration Amendment Act 2015.

The programme, which had its first instalment on May 22, is being implemented by the Criminal Case Management Steering Committee, which has as its mandate the implementation of policies and strategies that are geared towards the administration of justice in a timely manner in all the courts.

In October, Brown pleaded guilty to the murder of 31-year-old Kerry-Ann Wilson, who was reportedly beaten to death and her body found wrapped in a tarpaulin after he tried to dispose of it. more