Changing criminal justice system

Although the Department of Public Safety would not publicly admit it, elected leaders in the Commonwealth have expressed concern on what they described as the worsening crime situation in the CNMI.

Their concerns were validated when a study conducted by a consulting firm hired by the Prison Task Force called for an overhaul of the criminal justice system to prevent further the surge in crimes.

Aside from the police, the court and other concerned government agencies, such overwhelming task must be carried out partly by the Attorney General’s Office specifically the Criminal Division.

Saipan Tribune Reporter Lindablue F. Romero sat down with Kevin Andrew Lynch, chief of the Criminal Division in the Attorney General’s Office, to share his views on the changes that he believes must be carried out .

Question: In your more than two years of stay here, what do you think are the flaws in the criminal justice system which need to be addressed?

Answer: A lot of record keeping in the CNMI has not been complete as it should be. Cases don’t really get tracked from the time the police received the call all the way through the end of the system by agencies involved so we don’t really have a perfect information to go on.

There are cases that don’t get submitted to the Attorney General’s Office just so we can review and make a decision on whether to prosecute or not. Now this troubles me a lot because I think we have citizens who are victims of serious crimes that we need to look at.

So there are people who commit those crimes and are not made to face responsibilities. Now, if you have people who are not made to face those responsibilities for committing those crimes, then there is no reason for them not to commit them. This is very troubling for us and to the community.

Q: How do we solve these problems?

A: The Attorney General’s Office has asked the Department of Public Safety to closely monitor the cases and at least present them to our office so we can look at them and say this is a crime and this is not a crime. And then after analyzing further, we will make a decision on whether it is something that we can prosecute or cannot prosecute.

As you know, there are just some cases that cannot be prosecuted because of lack of evidence and witnesses. Of course, when we start receiving those cases, it will have an impact on DPS, on our office, Public Defender’s Office and the court. So we would be looking at an increase in the number of people and the amount of resources required for the whole system to handle a jump in case load.

Q: A consulting firm hired by the Prison Task Force has earlier called for a revamp of the criminal justice system. How do we go about carrying out such a huge task?

A: We need to look at the whole system, find out its weaknesses so we can address them. We can streamline the procedure to get the cases in court and also streamline the sentencing process.

I think we need to explore alternative kinds of sentencing. In other words, when I read a case and I look at it, I have to find out whether there are prior records, what crime was committed and who is the victim. So I take into consideration all kinds of factors before making any decision on what kind of sentence will be given that would at least be constructive.

Sometimes, I would ask the defendant to write a letter of apology to the victim because I think it is an important process for the person who committed the crime.

So it all depends on the seriousness of the crime. I don’t just say I have to punish somebody and that’s it. The punishment has to be something in which the defendant can get over with the problem and change his or her conduct or even make him look at me straight in the eye and say I did something wrong and I am not going to do it again.

Q: Do you find it a waste of time and taxpayers money when after spending so much time in one case, a victim comes to you and say I don’t want to push through with the complaint anymore?

A: I don’t look at it as wasting time or taxpayers money because in many cases, you meet victims who are reluctant to come forward because our legal system to most people can be very intimidating.

This is specially true to people who come from other cultures where the legal system is very different. When you look at it that way, you then realize that the reason why they are asking for a dismissal is not because they are not interested in the case.

So what I do is I sit down with the victim and talk about the reasons for the planned dismissal. For example, in domestic violence cases, the victim is afraid that the husband or live-in partner will get mad, lose income or the ability to feed the children. So we look at all the consequences. We find the sentence that is appropriate under the circumstances.

Most of all, I explain to the victim that I am not dropping the case because if I do that, you will not get protection and I don’t want you back here with another blackeye or a broken arm.

Q: What are your frustrations in the court decisions?

A: One disagreement that I have with the court sometimes is it does not take a strong action when it is necessary on juvenile offenders. Sometimes, the court is too lenient with pre trial release so you see them committing offenses over and over again.

With this, the system is not imposing any sanction. So I think our office has to be always conscious of the fact that people will not take law enforcement seriously so we have to be very active in following up on cases.

When the law enforcement in the criminal justice system does not set a standard of behavior and impose those standards, then the system is not maintaining its own authority and people will not take it seriously.

Q: What steps should be taken to make the laws relevant to the changing times?

A: We have to change our Criminal Code since it is now inadequate to deal with the modern times. We need a legislative solution to this. Some portions of it are a decade old which cannot respond to the modern time crimes. It may be complex to get the right code that will reflect the Commonwealth but I guess what I would like to see is one that is simple enough for people to understand. It should be comprehensive enough to cover all kinds of crimes that we need to address like stalking or those crimes committed using the telephone.

In the criminal procedure, we are working on the powers of the police in terms of search and seizure. So we have had a lot of discussion on how to streamline things, how to avoid wasting time and resources so that we can deal with cases promptly.