Providing justice in a swift and fair manner requires more than equipped and capable personnel within the system. It also requires strong and functional supporting systems.

The lead story of last Monday's Gleaner clearly demonstrates how the provision of the swift and fair sort of justice expected by citizens can be sidelined because of inadequate supporting facilities.

The article reported that the Bureau of Special Investigations, which investigates police shootings, claimed that poorly done post-mortems were compromising their investigations.

A police officer said in the story that on at least four occasions, bullets had been left inside the bodies by pathologists after they completed the post-mortems.

He said this compromised their investigations as without the bullets, the forensic expert was unable to say whose gun the shots were fired from.

It is clear by the article that the matter of justice needs to be viewed more broadly than just the court staff and systems. Clearly there are other supporting areas, such as the investigative arm, that also require reform.

The investigative arm needs to be given the tools to properly conduct their research, so that the correct person is prosecuted for the crimes and the judges and juries can make decisions based on the evidence presented.