Criminologist welcomes stronger judicial oversight in new bill

Crim­i­nol­o­gist Dr Randy Seep­er­sad has wel­comed the stronger ju­di­cial over­sight pro­posed un­der the new Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill but cau­tions that the leg­is­la­tion risks be­com­ing lit­tle more than a crime-sup­pres­sion mea­sure if it fails to ad­dress the so­cial con­di­tions that con­tribute to crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia by phone, Seep­er­sad said the lat­est ver­sion of the leg­is­la­tion in­cludes stronger checks and bal­ances, par­tic­u­lar­ly through in­creased ju­di­cial in­volve­ment.

How­ev­er, he ex­pressed con­cern about what ap­pears to be a di­min­ished fo­cus on so­cial in­ter­ven­tion pro­grammes.