Dear Editor,

There is no doubt that the problem of crime, violence, and disorder has reached proportions similar to the decade of the 1980s.

There were not just murders but gruesome and mass killings in a society in which drug dealers/cartels and gangs overran the populace and corrupted major national institutions. What was noticeable in the era was that the deterioration of the economy gave rise to a powerful underworld empire that became a major challenge to the police and Government.

If both the People’s National Party (PNP) and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) subscribe to the same economic approach to how the society is organised, then neither will be able to find a cure for crime. It is imperative that governance is not left solely to the Government or the Opposition. There is the need for serious national debate on crime.

I was shocked that the major announcement by the leader of the JLP at its recent conference is a plan to build a $30-billion prison. And the discussions about privatisation of the prison seems to be turning criminality into another industry for foreign investors, probably from Israel or the United States or both.

For all the periods in history that we have experienced surges in crime, the young people have featured prominently. From the era of plantations to the post-1938 period, prisons were built to control crime. The St Catherine district prison was constructed in the 17th century to hold and sell slaves that were landed at Port Henderson and travelled along the Passage Fort route. The General Penitentiary (now Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre) was also an early slave holding and slave market. Both were built to prevent any attempt at escape.

Between the 1840s and 1850s they were transformed to meet the rising crime in the post-Emancipation period. The cries of the newly freed slaves were answered with prisons.

The second wave of prison construction as a response to increasing crime occurred during the 1940s after the 100th anniversary of Emancipation. The cries and pain of the people were answered with prisons in the 1944 to 1949 period with the coming of the bauxite companies and the heavy migration of the dispossessed, especially from those rural areas where they contributed to the building of the urban shanties.

Presently, we may very well be recreating the old plantation society in Jamaica in which the poor in general and the youth in particular are neglected. We saw how the monoculture sugar cane economy was not helpful in developing people and the society, and today there is still the dominance of another form of monoculture that has not helped in taking people out of poverty.

Crime is a complex matter, but clearly poverty, injustice, and a dysfunctional education system are associated with its development in Jamaica.

But one thing that is real is that the current legal system cannot respond to crime control. In many Third World countries liberal democracy has been losing its efficacy, some of these governments have been embracing the hybrid State, a cross between authoritarianism and democracy. I can understand why the Government and the public want states of emergency (SOEs) renewed. I also understand the point of view of the PNP and the constitutionalist. But, in a practical way, until either the PNP of JLP or both comes up with the plan to solve this major problem, the SOEs are a comfort to many in communities that are being terrorised by criminals.

The Opposition is a part of His Majesty’s Government, and if it thinks the Government has no ideas to deal with crime, then the Opposition, in keeping with antecedents set by its founder Norman Manley, should share its ideas if it has any.

Do not behave like you have a secret weapon. Manley, as Opposition leader, was never afraid to share his ideas with the Government. You are there to serve the people of Jamaica.

Prisons and the established laws have never solved the problem of crime. The law should not be a shackle. I ask Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in whose interest do you serve, the citizens of Jamaica or foreign investors?

Dr Louis E A Moyston

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