Letters

Why should crime pay in Jamaica?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am writing in response to an article recently published in THE STAR captioned "Teen gets three-year suspended sentence". As the victim of this crime I must express my complete dissatisfaction with our judicial system. This person, albeit 17 years old, was reportedly convicted just last year for a similar offence and now had been given a three-year suspended sentence.

Since I moved back to Jamaica in 1995 my house has been burglarised on three different occasions, the incident above being the third, and irreplaceable sentimental items taken. After the second occasion I resorted to installing a King Alarm security system. I must express my gratitude to King Alarm as on this third occasion the alarm did go off while the criminals were using a hack saw blade to cut through the grill. The King Alarm security team responded in such a timely manner that they managed to catch one of the two criminals who were burglarising my house and actually found the items that were stolen estimated valued of $250,000.

According to one of the investigating officers the youth who was arrested confessed that although this was his first time into my house, his accomplice has broken in there before. Why did the youth not co-operate in giving a name? Surely this would be important in his sentence.

Now the question of guilt was obviously not at issues and what concerns me is Senior Resident Magistrate's Gayle giving this criminal, who was convicted last year for a similar offence, with a confessed compulsion to steal, who admitted a long obsession with ganja, a three year suspended sentence and probation for two years. The sentence imposed by the RM did absolutely nothing to address and medically treat his obsession with drugs and compulsion to steal. Moreover, as the victim and despite my request to be notified, neither the police nor the Director of Public Prosecutions' office informed me of the dates when this matter would come before the court. I would have liked to have had an opportunity to be heard. In fact I only came to know of this case and sentence imposed by reading THE STAR.

We Jamaicans have to deal with crime every day in every aspect of our lives. Crime has had a debilitating effect on our businesses and our personal lives. It is enormously disrespectful and insulting to the victims, the police, and all law-abiding citizens of Jamaica when criminals, especially those with prior convictions, do not get adequately punished or incarcerated for their crimes. The message sent by Senior Resident Magistrate Gayle to all the criminals of Jamaica, and granted we have our fair share of them, is that you can steal and be repeatedly convicted and you won't have to go to jail. In Jamaica being a thief is a good business; you work for only an hour or two and get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods. What's the downside? The beauty of this is that there is virtually no downside because if and when you do eventually get caught, you don't even have to go to jail.

I am, etc.,

SIMON duQUESNAY

Simon@cwjamaica.com

Jacks Hill Close

Kingston 6