Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall has said that 50 law graduates from the University of Guyana (UG) have indicated their interest in being trained to serve as prosecutors.
AG Nandlall made this disclosure during his address at the Budget 2020 debates on Friday, the Department of Public Information said.
The graduates, all holders of Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degrees, will have to undertake a one-year accredited prosecutorial training programme at UG, which will soon be implemented.
This will be done through Support from the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) programme which is funded by the Inter-American Bank (IDB), aimed at strengthening Guyana’s prosecutorial services, the AG said according to DPI.
Graduates who are selected will be hired as prosecutors in the magistrates’ courts in collaboration with the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Guyana Police Force.
The AG said one of the goals of the initiative is to address the overcrowding of local prisons. Guyana’s prison population significantly surpasses the world’s average with a rate of 264 per 100,000 and an occupancy level of 137.5 per cent. AG Nandlall attributed this to an over reliance on custodial sentences and the overuse of pretrial detention in the criminal justice system.
The AG first spoke of the initiative at the commissioning of the Court Superintendent Office at the Brickdam Police Station earlier this month.
