Dear Editor,
From time to time, we get reports of deportees who had commited crimes when they are abroad and who have been sent here to, effectively, continue their lives of crime in this country.
As far as I know, whenever such people are convicted abroad, they cannot be convicted here. I think that the time has now come when we should change this.
While I don’t think that we should charge Jamaicans who commit every crime abroad when they come back here, I think that when they commit certain crimes abroad, like murder, the crime that they committed abroad should be treated with appropriate punishment.
Many times, when these people are deported, they are processed and then set free. Oftentimes, some of these same ‘foreign’ felons end up leading dangerous gangs that cause all sorts of mayhem. When they do, the police have a hard time finding them. I think that once these criminal deportees land here, they should be taken into immediate custody.
Our anti-gang and other laws should be changed to have a classification of an extra-national component. That is, once we leave this country and commit this class of crime abroad, it should be considered that those crimes were committed here too.
There are several advantages to doing this. For starters, it may act as a deterrent for some of us who think that just because they leave this country and commit a serious crime abroad, when they are caught abroad and deported here, they will be free to resume their life of crime here, as we now cannot touch them. Some of them may think twice before starting a life of crime, either abroad or when they are dumped here.
We have seen too many cases in which after we process deported criminals and then let them go, they resume their life of crime and the police cannot find them. Many times, they kill people.
I know that it will not be necessary to make all crimes committed by us abroad automatic criminal acts here. However, based on our crime problem, and the impact of deportees, there are some that we should make so.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
From time to time, we get reports of deportees who had commited crimes when they are abroad and who have been sent here to, effectively, continue their lives of crime in this country.
As far as I know, whenever such people are convicted abroad, they cannot be convicted here. I think that the time has now come when we should change this.
While I don’t think that we should charge Jamaicans who commit every crime abroad when they come back here, I think that when they commit certain crimes abroad, like murder, the crime that they committed abroad should be treated with appropriate punishment.
Many times, when these people are deported, they are processed and then set free. Oftentimes, some of these same ‘foreign’ felons end up leading dangerous gangs that cause all sorts of mayhem. When they do, the police have a hard time finding them. I think that once these criminal deportees land here, they should be taken into immediate custody.
Our anti-gang and other laws should be changed to have a classification of an extra-national component. That is, once we leave this country and commit this class of crime abroad, it should be considered that those crimes were committed here too.
There are several advantages to doing this. For starters, it may act as a deterrent for some of us who think that just because they leave this country and commit a serious crime abroad, when they are caught abroad and deported here, they will be free to resume their life of crime here, as we now cannot touch them. Some of them may think twice before starting a life of crime, either abroad or when they are dumped here.
We have seen too many cases in which after we process deported criminals and then let them go, they resume their life of crime and the police cannot find them. Many times, they kill people.
I know that it will not be necessary to make all crimes committed by us abroad automatic criminal acts here. However, based on our crime problem, and the impact of deportees, there are some that we should make so.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com