The Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness has prompt that the island wants a separate ministry to “deal with crime and violence” within the nation.
Holness hinted on the proposal of the brand new ministry throughout a sitting of Parliament on November 7, the place he and different legislators condemned what he described as a “barbaric killing” of three Jamaicans, together with two younger boys, in the neighborhood of Salt Spring, St. James, on Monday.
A state of emergency has since been declared for all the parish of St. James.
Throughout a debate with different members of Parliament on the present measures in place to quell crime within the nation, the Prime Minister mentioned the safety measures like curfews and states of emergency aren’t the one measures wanted.
Holness mentioned the crime drawback is “over and above” the capability of the Ministry of Nationwide Safety, “which suggests the magnitude of the crimes is a menace to our nationwide safety.”
The Prime Minister mentioned there may be now a necessity for the federal government to “pursue the crime-fighting technique on the human aspect.
“We can’t rely solely on the emergency measures or the police to cope with the crime drawback. The human aspect must be handled … these points which were raised concerning psychological well being and trauma, parenting, corporal punishment throughout the faculties … all of those are components that we’ve got to deal with inside our society,” Holness mentioned.
He famous the “nice work” being performed by the Nationwide Violence Prevention Fee, established in 2019 to establish gaps within the prevention and intervention providers and to make suggestions with respect to violence prevention and intervention packages.
The fee is anticipated to submit a serious report back to the federal government by yr finish.
“The strategic pondering is that we want this nationwide fee to have a look at what belongings we’ve got already deployed in treating violence, see the place the gaps are, after which the federal government must dedicate a finances and doubtless create a complete ministry to coordinate all of the state and civil actions to deal with with this problem.”
Holness mentioned the federal government’s largest problem is that the tradition in Jamaica has developed in such a method “that we embrace violence,” and any shift in laws to oppose that can possible end in “cultural backlash.”
”However we’ve got to interrupt that,” he mentioned.
