Former Minister of Justice, Magali Jacoba by the Common Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba rebuffed in a case involving an inmate asked to leave with Electronic Monitoring, but not received.
This follows from a decision of the Council Chamber of the Court in a case of a 30-year-old prisoner on St. Maarten against the state.
Electronic Monitoring
The detainee St. Maarten through the warden of the prison and remand Point Blanche invited to qualify for leave with Electronic Monitoring. This form of leave means that the supervision of a prisoner is supported by technical equipment, making a prisoner at home or at a different place penalty (temporarily) may undergo.
Electronic Monitoring is a decision normally made by the Minister of Justice, but because they – then – was based in Willemstad, the Minister for practical reasons, the prison director’s permission to Sint Maarten to decide. This had negatively to the request, which the inmate sued the state.
Heavy power
The Court has now put a stop to the conduct of the minister and held that its jurisdiction should not cede to a prison warden. Electronic Surveillance should the Court be considered a serious responsibility, because the nature of the output of a penalty. It fits, according to the verdict, the Minister of Justice as the supreme political body responsible self-rule on the matter, as well as the law requires.
Moreover, the law provides an advisory role of a prison warden in applications for electronic monitoring. This is incompatible with the authority to also make the decision in this matter.
Decision
For reasons like these the Court in the interest of proper criminal justice imperative that the ministerial decision which the prison was authorized, to be overturned and the Minister of Justice is entrusted to still decide on the inmate in question.
This case will be Roland Duncan. He is the new Minister of Justice in the new country St. Maarten.