DR Carolyn Gomes, the executive director of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), says a lack of accountability at all levels of the security and justice systems and the role, function and duty of various parts of those systems, including the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, have to be dealt with if there is to be a “new and just Jamaican society”.

She said, too, that “issues of respect for the dignity, humanity and rights of each and every Jamaican citizen and issues of how to bring meaningful action to bear on our increasing crime rate and the increasingly ineffectual justice system” must also be addressed.

Gomes, who was addressing a luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, said there was need for a deeper discussion of what kind of society Jamaica was trying to build.

And she again criticised the handling of the case involving Michael Gayle, the mentally ill man who was beaten to death by members of the security forces in 1999.

“How can this horrific deed have happened and no one held responsible?” Gomes asked. “The police did not respond and a crime was committed that could have been prevented.”

Such inaction, she added, showed lack of accountability in the justice system and that it was up to the office of the DPP to collect evidence to strengthen indictments against the officers.

In the meantime, Gomes expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that annual reports continue to highlight failing policing strategies in Jamaica based on ‘rights-abrogating tactics’.

“.There has been a failure to implement the recommendations of JFJ for change beginning with community-based policing, community empowerment and improved accountability systems in the society,” said Gomes.

“I would also like to submit that failure to modernise and reform the falling apart justice system is a result of unconscious or conscious class, colour and tribal paradigms…,” she added.