In an official letter dated August 13, 2026, Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, formally requested Chief Justice Margaret Price Findlay of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court to establish an independent committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the nation’s criminal justice system, with a specific focus on firearm sentencing and repeat offending. The proposal comes after a high-level meeting of the National Security Council alongside top security and law enforcement leaders, addressing what Browne describes as a grave and urgent threat to national public safety.
Regional data compiled by leading Caribbean and global institutions underscores the severity of the growing crisis. A December 2025 joint research report titled *Pathway to Policy: Firearms Trafficking and Public Health in the Caribbean*, published by the Small Arms Survey, CARICOM IMPACS, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, and the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre at the University of the West Indies, reveals that the combined homicide rate across CARICOM member and associate states more than doubled between 2023 and 2024 when compared to the 2016–2019 pre-pandemic baseline. The same study estimates that 86% of all homicides committed in the region during this period involved firearms.
Local data from Antigua and Barbuda mirrors this troubling regional trend. The nation’s homicide rate rose from 2.4 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 10.8 in 2022, 10.7 in 2023, and 12.8 in 2024. While the increase has not been perfectly linear, the rate has stayed consistently far higher than pre-2020 levels, and security briefings confirm that firearm-related violence remains at unacceptably high levels. Compounding this issue is the growing problem of repeat offending: official data shows that roughly 250 people with prior criminal convictions have been arrested and charged with additional serious offenses. Browne emphasized that while these charges do not equal a finding of guilt for the new alleged crimes, the figure makes clear that repeat offending is a systemic issue that must be examined across every stage of the criminal justice process. This problem places unnecessary strain on law enforcement, erodes public trust in public safety institutions, and demands a coordinated cross-agency response, he added.
Browne noted that his administration has already taken legislative and operational steps to address violent crime. Parliament has passed new laws that set maximum custodial penalties of up to 15 years for certain firearm offenses, and the government has increased investment in policing, border security, intelligence gathering, prosecution capacity, and offender rehabilitation programs. However, the public has growing concerns that many actual sentences handed down for firearm and serious violent offenses are far lower than the statutory maximum, inconsistent with the severity of the crimes committed.
Browne acknowledged that legal process requires nuance: maximum sentences are not mandatory, and judges must properly consider the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Sentencing Guidelines, sentence reductions for guilty pleas, aggravating and mitigating circumstances, prior criminal history, credit for time spent in remand, the totality principle, and relevant appellate rulings. Rather than relying on unsubstantiated generalizations about sentencing outcomes, Browne argued that the only appropriate path forward is to conduct rigorous, independent scrutiny of current practices to determine if legislative policy, sentencing norms, and criminal justice administration are functioning in a coherent, effective manner.
The Prime Minister was clear to clarify that the proposal upholds constitutional principles of judicial independence and separation of powers. He stressed that an elected government with a popular mandate has a duty to speak out when public safety is at risk, just as all branches of state are accountable for fulfilling their core responsibilities. At the same time, he committed to addressing concerns through constitutional and legal channels, noting that any matters involving judicial tenure, assignment, or conduct will be handled through constitutionally mandated processes. This proposed independent review, he said, is not a retreat from stated concerns, but a constitutionally appropriate path to turn those concerns into evidence-based reform.
Under Browne’s proposal, the Chief Justice would appoint a three-member committee of independent, qualified individuals to lead the review, focused first on Antigua and Barbuda, with the option to expand the scope to the broader Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court jurisdiction by mutual agreement. Browne has already consulted former CARICOM High-Level Representative on Law and Criminal Justice Sir Dennis Byron and current representative Justice Godfrey Smith, who have agreed to share their existing body of work including strategic plans, model legislation, policy papers, and outcomes from recent dialogues between CARICOM heads of government and judiciary, to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
Browne has suggested inviting former Caribbean Court of Justice President Adrian Saunders, who previously served as acting Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and co-facilitated a 2025 regional dialogue on criminal justice, to chair the committee, pending his willingness to serve. The proposed terms of reference for the panel outline six core tasks: collect and analyze anonymized, aggregated sentencing data for firearm and serious violent offenses over a five-year period; assess outcomes against governing legislation, sentencing guidelines, and appellate rulings; identify any significant gaps between legislative policy and actual sentencing outcomes, along with the legal, evidentiary, or administrative causes of those gaps; review the full criminal justice chain from charging and prosecution to access to criminal history information, bail and remand processes, prison release, post-release supervision, and rehabilitation; quantify the scale of repeat offending using available reliable data and assess whether current frameworks adequately reduce reoffending risk; and recommend legislative, procedural, guideline, data, and inter-agency reforms that protect public safety while preserving judicial independence and separation of powers.
Reflecting the urgent nature of the public safety crisis, Browne has set an aggressive timetable for the process. He has requested an initial response from the Chief Justice by August 20, 2026, with finalization of committee membership and terms of reference by August 31, 2026. The committee would be expected to release interim observations within 30 days of its appointment and submit a final public report within 90 days. The Antigua and Barbuda government has committed to providing a senior focal point, full access to required data, logistical support, and access to all relevant government agencies to enable the committee to complete its work.
In closing, Browne emphasized that the people of Antigua and Barbuda have a right to expect the elected government, judiciary, and law enforcement agencies to address this growing crisis with urgency, discipline, and shared purpose. The government will continue to uphold judicial independence, just as it will continue to fulfill its democratic mandate to protect public safety, he said, and he urged the Chief Justice to give the proposal urgent consideration.