Mobile Justice Unit Offers Services to Residents of Washington Gardens
By: November 24, 2017 ,The Key Point:
The Facts
- Speaking with JIS News, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Council, Hugh Faulkner, said the Council has a mandate to visit 50 Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) communities each year.
- The Mobile Justice Unit operates out of a specially retrofitted Coaster bus and is fulfilling a priority of the Ministry of Justice to improve access to justice for everyone, particularly those in rural and inner-city communities.
The Full Story
Residents of Washington Gardens benefited from the services of the Legal Aid Council, through its Mobile Justice Unit, today (November 23).
The unit and representatives from other State agencies were present as part of outreach activities conducted at the Washington Gardens Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kingston.
Speaking with JIS News, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Council, Hugh Faulkner, said the Council has a mandate to visit 50 Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) communities each year.
“In the recent two visits that we made to Windsor Heights in St. Catherine and Trench Town in Kingston, the turnout was excellent. We found that a number of persons had expungement issues, and so we were able to open our lines and speak with the department that deals with expungement at the Ministry, so they could hear all the responses,” Mr. Faulkner said.
“In most cases, persons were eligible for expungement, but they were being held back by this criminal record. In a few cases, the offences that they had committed were not eligible for expungement on the first instance, but they were eligible for a pardon. So, we directed them as to the processes… for that outcome to be achieved,” he added.
Other legal matters that persons received advice on included maintenance issues, divorce, custody, wounding, illegal possession of firearms, and land issues.
The Mobile Justice Unit operates out of a specially retrofitted Coaster bus and is fulfilling a priority of the Ministry of Justice to improve access to justice for everyone, particularly those in rural and inner-city communities.
The unit will next visit St. Mary Parish Church on Friday (November 24), in Port Maria.