The editorial in this newspaper at the beginning of the past week suggested that our legislators have been dithering on the matter of crime, thereby delaying the decisive action that is necessary “to strengthen the hand of law enforcement and the judiciary in the effort to bring criminals to heel”. It further asserts that this is due in part to “a pandering to intellectualised foolishness [which] continues unabated”.

While there is hardly a Jamaican who does not understand the urgency of the situation, it does appear that this position reflects a limited, if not ideological position, on how to tackle our crime problem. It should not surprise us that the legislators are not being decisive in dealing in a creative way with the problem before us.

The crime challenge which has now mushroomed to epidemic proportions had its genesis in our political culture, the very culture which underlies the electoral process which produces our legislators.

The crime which has pervaded this society over the last few decades, and especially those associated with the gun, had emerged in specific communities with known political leaders and a politics of tribalism. It thrived on the promotion of patronage and dependence — free housing, free water, free light, when citizens of similar economic and social background either had to pay the cost of these things or were denied them.

In addition, it was a culture that did not create the discipline of a work ethic. It was based on “dropping a money”. So today, when persons say “nutten naa gwaan”, it does not mean that there aren’t jobs available, but the amount of cash that is needed to move from one situation or need to another is not forthcoming.

It is to this kind of culture and expressed need for which much of the money spent at election time is disbursed. We would be naïve to think that the alleged sum of $55 million spent in the recent Jamaica Labour Party leadership race was just for administrative costs.

Over the years, the appetite which the political culture has generated cannot be satisfied by the usual political purse and resources, and especially so as the spotlight is being shone more and more on the pork-barrel politics with the implementation of the procurement guidelines and the work of the Office of the Contractor General.

The problem has been exacerbated by the fact that, as the country moves more and more toward a service economy, like much of the world in which this is happening, the jobs which are available are low-paying, minimum-wage jobs. That situation will certainly not fly with those who have known different days.

The sources of the gun and income have shifted to the “drug for guns trade” and the perfection of the extortion racket. With the alliance of deportees with criminal records, their activities have taken on a new level of sophistication, with abduction becoming a part of the menu.

A new kind of leadership has arisen, which does not require political legitimacy and which has the capacity to deliver the goods to those in the communities once controlled by political figures and aspirants, at a high cost to those individuals and communities which are now dependent on them.

What we are now seeing is a situation in which the high cost exacted from those communities controlled by area leaders and dons has now been transferred to the entire nation. The power of the gun is able to release a reign of terror and the jungle justice which is now engulfing the nation.

The very issue of this newspaper in which the article speaking to dithering appeared, featured another development which is most relevant to our reflection. The article highlighted comments from Assistant Commissioner of Police George Quallo, who stated that there is a trend of criminals from opposing political affiliations merging their operations and sharing resources, and that this is increasing.

What we are seeing is the development of seeds which have been sown over many years within the political culture coming to fruition. The problem does not disappear with that revelation, as the machinations of party politics are still dependent on the support of these elements at the local community level.

From time to time we see the repercussion of the exceptional politician who tries to change or walk away from that culture. The kind of decisive action which the editorial seeks to elicit will not occur as it will eliminate the base of support. The alert would have seen one demonstration of recent weeks in which one community threatened to change party allegiance if the policing practised within their community did not stop.

The opinion expressed in the editorial, like that of many Jamaicans, seems to assume that with more vigorous policing and with an accompanying improved efficiency in the operations of the judicial system our problem will be solved. There is no question that there is an urgent need for improvements in the judicial system at every level, not just for dealing with criminals, but for the delivery of justice for the people of this nation on a timely basis. As we keep repeating each day: “Justice delayed is justice denied”.

On the matter of policing becoming more vigorous, however, I believe that our legislators and all of us who are seeking a solution to this national problem need to pause and cool some of the emotions.

Much of the policing which is currently directed at assuring the public that there is a reduction in the level of criminal activity is not having the desired effect. We can always play around with statistics and believe that we are getting the desired results. The high level of killings by police in the line of duty and the recovery of guns are statistics in which we can take comfort, but to do so is to take comfort in self-deception.

We who enjoy privileged positions in the society can choose to close our eyes to what is happening in the wider national context. There is a level of anger, venom, and social alienation which is being expressed ad infinitum in many of our communities in response to their experience of policing, which we ignore to our peril.

We have made the mistake in the past of thinking that criminal activity would have stayed below Cross Roads if we just ignored it long enough, and have now awakened to the reality that none of us is safe from its tentacles, even if we live in gated communities.

The truth of the matter is that we have, at base, a social problem and have relegated the solution to the police, and keep demanding proof that they are being effective in the solution of the same, hence the emphasis on statistics as credible evidence to this effect. And now the proposed Anti-Gang Act 2013 [Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act 2013] is intended, in part, to take a similar line.

There is no question that there are hardened criminals at large in the country who are creating havoc, but we must be careful how we lump everybody together and create strategies which we regard as draconian, but end up creating more problems for us than they solve.

It is no point passing new laws, however draconian, when the current ones are not being enacted and effective. We must certainly pursue a path in which the rate of solution of crimes by the police can show significant improvement. At a current level of about 20 per cent for all crimes, with the level for murders being at a low of about five per cent on statistics released from a recent study, new laws will only add to the stack of paper but not bring the desired results.

Additionally, unless we can find ways to use intelligence to monitor the movements of deportees who have criminal records, we will not be able to solve many of the crimes and will continue to lump their activities into one amorphous mass, allowing each person to choose what label to be attached to the perpetrators of crimes and the appropriate solution.

It is time wto stop and ask ourselves: What is it that is leading our young men to a life of crime and to create alliances with gangs? And, in answering that question, we must move beyond our naivety and recognise that gangs are now a part of the reality of life in our schools.

The proposed Anti-Gang Act makes it mandatory that persons who are convicted of alliance with gangs be given sentences of 15 years. So, let’s put them away for 15 years in a system that is not geared toward reform of inmates, but which becomes a university for learning how to become a more hardened and sophisticated criminal!

We can now rest in peace, as the right climate will now exist for investment and for business to thrive. If we believe this we are no better than Pollyanna, the eternally optimistic title character of Eleanor Proter’s 1913 novel.

What is the age of these criminals? Have we listened to the ages of those killed in the line of duty by the police? While we send off our high school and university graduates to the United States and Canada to make life, have we bothered to ask what is in store for these teenage boys who live in the communities with the highest levels of crime and who attend certain schools which the police have now been able to identify in a study they have conducted?

The data exist to indicate the circumstances under which the children who later grow to become teenagers begin life in these communities. It indicates the percentage who begin life with deficiencies which have a debilitating effect on the brain, the number who go to school hungry, the single mothers who cannot cope with the responsibilities of parenting, and a school system which alienates the boys in the educational process.

There is also ample evidence of those who have applied themselves to educational pursuits but who lack the means to pay for the increasing cost of tertiary education. It would appear that this should be the primary focus for our legislators, namely, how to improve the social conditions within the communities where these children spend their formative years.

The truth is that the performance of some of the legislators in this regard has been dismal over the years. Handouts and patronage have taken the place of focused and strategic planning for the development of the communities they represent. Indeed, we have seen the response when member of parliament Damion Crawford tried to give a different definition to the historic one to which his constituency has grown accustomed.

The nation now yearns for an end to dithering by our legislators which will see the implementation of legislation that provides mandatory imprisonment of 15 years for first-offending youth, and is dismissive of suggestions of the exploration of alternative strategies for the rehabilitation of first-offending youth as “intellectualised foolishness”.

We are now investing one million dollars per year on each offending youth to have him incarcerated in what is, in effect, a holding situation designed to make him worse in the end, perhaps arguing that we will deal with that problem when the time comes.

Instead of tossing first-time offenders into overcrowded prisons, we should be spending those millions on reform programmes to train and educate them for a productive life.

An educated youth population has much more to offer than an incarcerated one.

As one of the “intellectualised foolish ones”, I draw the nation’s attention to a programme conducted by the Jamaica Defence Force for socialising at-risk youth from inner-city communities and equipping them with a skill. Just pass by the gate of Up Park Camp before 8:00 am weekdays and watch the discipline of inner-city youth in operation. It is clear evidence of what can happen to youth who are at risk when the society has positive options to offer them.

Draconian laws are never going to put an end to the anti-social behaviour and violence which are being manifested by youth who are joining gangs. Youth represent one of the most creative resources in any society, and if we are unable to engage and tap into that creativity, offering no more than the incarceration of that creative potential for nurturing into more seasoned criminal activity, then we are in serious trouble as a nation.

What we are doing to our young men is not unlike what the AIDS pandemic is doing to nations across the world by decimating its youth and the potential contribution on which nation-building depends.

The society needs to offer options to the dead end which many of our youth see before them, a situation being made worse by the economic strategies being pursued across the world, leaving youth with very high levels of unemployment, even for those who have been disciplined in their academic pursuits.

The system which generates these anti-social youth will not be curtailed by enlarging the population of the incarcerated or eliminating them by killing them. A more creative path is for our legislators to address their minds to ways in which to interrupt the process spawning our young gangsters, and work along with stakeholders to provide opportunities for the reform of first-time offenders.

Creating avenues for the development of communities and employment for those who are without jobs, and offering credible alternatives to those being offered by the lure of gangs and their leaders are also vital. Hanging our hopes on the notion that draconian measures will drive fear into the hearts of potential criminals is futile, as it will hardly make an iota of difference to those who, hardened by the circumstances of life, neither fear the agents of the law nor death itself.

— Howard Gregory is the Lord Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands