Judge notes system’s flaws

Justice Alexander Henderson dismissed an appeal by a man against his prison sentence, but said the case “demonstrates fundamental failings in our criminal justice system in the Cayman Islands.” 

He made the comment this month after hearing submissions from Attorney John Furniss on behalf of Tommy Orlando Ebanks. Last year Chief Magistrate Margaret Ramsay-Hale sentenced Ebanks to four years imprisonment: three years for burglary, six months for another burglary and six months for assaulting a police officer.  

Mr. Furniss had told her that Ebanks’ offences, as in the past, involved entering a premises for shelter or for stealing food and clothing. 

The magistrate said she would like to have been able to sentence Ebanks to a halfway house or a bail hostel or someplace with proper supervision so that he could work during the day and return at night for a meal, a shower and a bed. With no such facility available, she imposed the prison term (Caymanian Compass, 5 July 2010). 

In the appeal to Grand Court, Mr. Furniss summarised the discussions he and the magistrate had in open court about Ebanks, now 25, and a few other men who have no fixed residence and come back to court on a nuisance basis. Even if they have relatives with whom they could live, they have problems fitting in with a normal family structure. 

Justice Henderson said he couldn’t help but notice that Ebanks had a long criminal record – 41 convictions, including nine for burglary. 

Mr. Furniss referred to problems Ebanks had had with both of his parents, one of whom was an alcoholic. He said Ebanks’ personal history showed he had been unsuccessful throughout his youth and adolescence in his attempts to comply with social norms. Behavioural issues led to early termination of his formal education. 

In her sentencing remarks, the magistrate noted an earlier burglary in which Ebanks went into a residential property and took a shower. She said he was satisfying yet another basic need, as he did not have a fixed place to live. 

The burglary for which he received six months was at a preschool, where Ebanks ate popcorn and a cup of soup and drank some fruit punch. 

The residential burglary for which he received three years involved the theft of jeans, shirts, socks and a purse, with a total value of $75. The magistrate said the value of the goods was not high, but she had to consider the impact on the victims. Three people were home at the time – an elderly woman who was ill, an elderly man and a helper.  

“I have a lack of options caused by Tommy himself,” the magistrate said. “Whatever we say about his cognitive abilities, he understands he has put himself in this position. We had tried to avoid his getting institutionalised.”  

Lack of halfway house or hostel 

Mr. Furniss repeated that concern, saying there was great risk of Ebanks becoming incapable of independent living. Without a halfway house or hostel, Northward Prison was being used to warehouse Ebanks and others like him. On release from prison, the attorney wondered, where would Ebanks go? And what would be there to assist him? 

He pointed out that although Cayman has an Alternative Sentencing Law, there was no place where Ebanks could be placed and then be subject to its provisions. 

Justice Henderson observed that any jurisdiction can pass an alternative sentencing law. “The only question, really, is whether they’re going to put up the money to provide the resources to make it effective.” 

No reduction in sentence 

He then gave his reasons for not reducing the sentence, noting first that this unfortunate case demonstrated failings in the system. 

Viewed objectively, there was nothing wrong with the four years, he said; in fact, it appeared rather lenient. 

“I say that because burglary and assaulting a police officer are both serious offences with which this community is plagued, and because Mr. Ebanks has a lengthy criminal record for the same sort of offending. However, there is another dimension to this case. 

“Mr. Ebanks suffers from a number of what I might term ‘disabilities’ – 

including Attention Deficit Disorder, a relatively low intellectual quotient, and what has been described recently by an Island psychiatrist, who examined him to see if he was fit for trial, as ‘subnormal functioning’. 

“Mr. Ebanks has spent his entire adulthood in custody, with the exception of very short periods of time here and there when he attempted to function on the outside, without any success and, no doubt, without any adequate support from those resources you would expect to find in an affluent community.”