Prime Minister and Member of Parliament for Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador, the Hon. Philip Davis led debate on the Bail Amendment Bill in the House Of Assembly on Wednesday.
Davis told Parliamentarians about the proposed changes, “judges have discretion over the grant or denial of bail, it is true, but today we are here to require that in case where the accused has violated one or more of the conditions under which their bail was granted the revocation of that bail and immediate penalty. You break the rules, you go to jail. No more fines for violations, no more freedom to commit new crimes. When people show us they cannot follow the rules it is more than reasonable to infer they pose too great a risk to public safety to be free.”
The Prime Minister added, “if anyone thinks they’re going to just duck out of coming to court, commit additional offences, tamper with monitoring devices placed upon them or breach the conditions imposed upon them in anyway then I have news for them, Mr. Deputy Speaker, its a new day for justice and accountability in The Bahamas. Such blatant disregard for the conditions placed on them by the courts as well as their disregard for public safety should be met with a strong response not a slap on the wrist.”
Davis also addressed the added conditions of bail including flight risk, not interfering with witnesses, not committing an offense while on bail, those who breach bail conditions must now agree to specified terms by signature, among others. “Reporting to a police station at a specified time, wearing a monitoring device, surrendering passports and other documents and keeping the peace and being of good behaviour as well as any other conditions that might be prescribed. Those are just some of the conditions under which what I call the discretion of the court can be exercised.”
Prime Minister Davis announced the government’s move to amendment the Bail Act on January 24th as part of its response to the latest spate of murders and serious crime in the country.
