MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Social Development Commission (SDC) says it has identified poor parenting as a major contributing factor to the high level of indiscipline among youths in the inner-city community of Mount Salem in St James.

The SDC made the disclosure yesterday as the community entered its second week under the national spotlight, having been declared the island’s first Zone of Special Operation (ZOSO) on Friday, September 1.

“We have hosted a two-day workshop to identify what are the major security and safety issues affecting Mount Salem, and poor parenting is among the five that were identified by residents,” SDC Community Development Officer Dainty Taylor told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

This was echoed by a resident of the community who did not want his identity to be made public.

“Our biggest problem is poor parenting in the area. Some of the parents right now, dem cover dem kids in wrongs. If you reprimand some of the youths, their parents vex with you,” the man claimed.

“Parents need to take up their children in hand. Pickney deh have pickney. Mi see son who is 16-year-old student asking his mother for rizzla to make ganja spliff. Him smoke and mother smoke. So what you expect?”

Taylor revealed that residents also highlighted crime and violence, unemployment, illiteracy, and substance abuse among the major problems dogging their community.

The information gathered at the SDC workshop reinforces data from a 2009 socio-economic survey conducted by the commission showing that the most pressing issues among Mount Salem residents were high levels of unemployment, poor representation by elected political representatives, poor roads, poor parenting, and crime and violence.

Two Fridays ago at a news conference, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in announcing the establishment of the zone in Mount Salem, said the community was chosen based on analysis of the current crime data and on the trends of crime hotspots in Jamaica.

He explained that the Law Reform (Zones of Social Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) Act, 2017 allows the security forces to operate under special conditions in a designated geographical area.

Under the law, no area can be declared a zone of special operation for more than 60 days. But if targets are not met within the 60 days allotted for the operation, Parliament will have to decide whether the ZOSO should continue or end.

At the news conference, Deputy Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake, in announcing murder figures for “Mount Salem and its environs”, said that in 2014 the area recorded 46. The number rose to 70 in 2015, jumped to 85 the following year and, at the time of the announcement, the number recorded was 54 since the start of the year.

However, the 2017 figures were challenged by Mount Salem residents and the Opposition who insisted that there were far fewer than 54 murders committed in the community so far this year.

The police, on the advice of the National Security Council, reviewed the figures and on Friday corrected them, saying that in 2014 the community recorded four murders and 11 shootings; in 2016 there were nine murders and 10 shootings, while seven murders and eight shootings have been recorded since January this year.

Last week, chair of the Mount Salem Community Development Council Winsome Barnes bemoaned the lack of infrastructure in the community.

“For instance, if something happens in Clark Street, because of how the lanes are set up you have to come out to go around. If certain strategic fences are removed, then you can drive through to make it more accessible,” Barnes noted.

One young man, who spoke to the Sunday Observer on condition of anonymity, explained that as a result of the stigma of violence attached to Mount Salem, it is difficult for the residents to acquire decent jobs.

“We have a lot of qualified persons in Mount Salem but it is very difficult for us to secure a decent paying job,” the youngster, who said he was a graduate of a prominent western Jamaica school, told the Sunday Observer.

However, another man who lives in the community voiced an opposing view: “Some of the youths don’t want to work since scamming come in,” he said.

Yesterday, the Government hosted a community services fair at Mount Salem Primary and Infant School to support the delivery of social services related to identification, health and youth development for the residents.

Having declared Mount Salem as the first ZOSO, Prime Minister Andrew Holness last Tuesday convened the inaugural meeting of the Social Intervention Committee at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The ZOSO Act stipulates that a Social Intervention Committee must be established within five working days of the declaration of the zone.

Holness said Tuesday that the committee must focus on community- and peace-building initiatives.

The prime minister had also said that the community initiatives began with the establishment of a special back-to-school fund, and that the fair would have been next.

The fair offered a wide array of services including civil registration, health and social protection, employment and skills training. It was staged in partnership with the Child Development Agency, Jamaica Social Investment Fund, SDC, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Security, Registrar General’s Department, HEART Trust/NTA, National Insurance Scheme, Tax Administration Jamaica, as well as non-government organisations such as the Lions Club.