A Look at Belize’s Criminal Justice System

Parvais Jabbar

According to Executive Director, Parvais Jabbar of the Death Penalty Project, the presentation of the report is not a question of people being released from prison, in light of the previously mentioned issues.  It is more about accessing and managing resources than it is about getting prisoners off the hook.

Parvais Jabbar, Executive Director, The Death Penalty Project

“It’s a question of cases being reviewed and assessed and looked into, so for example Mrs. Sheppard is working on a bail program for juveniles so there have been a number who have been released.  But that’s just a small part of the project, the real question is how you tackle some of the issues that have been identified and how you address the resource issues.  So, for example, one of the major issues is a question of resource and when you say this should be easy for you to do in Belize because we are very small; the same problems that Joe identified in his report here exists in every single jurisdiction in the world.  So it’s a question of degrees, it’s a question of how you improve; so it’s not a question of first world or developing world or anything like that.  It’s a question of what are the specific problems in Belize which are common to other jurisdictions.  How have they been addressed in other jurisdictions and can we bring any of that expertise in Belize.”