KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Peace Management Initiative (PMI) will be revitalised under a future People’s National Party (PNP) Government as part of efforts to improve citizen security.

The announced was made on Tuesday by Opposition Leader Mark Golding during his contribution to the Budget Debate on Tuesday.

According to Golding, “The very high level of violent crime in Jamaica continues to demoralise our nation, discourage investment, increase the costs of medical care and reduce our capacity to achieve high levels of inclusive, sustainable economic growth”.

“I have emphasised that we see education as a means to reduce the levels of violence and crime in our society. I am making the broader point that to make Jamaica a safe country in which to live, work, raise families and do business, a different approach must be taken to national security (or, as we prefer to call it, citizen security), coupled with a concerted thrust for social transformation,” Golding added.

The following proposals were listed by Golding for making the country safer:

● revitalising the PMI to build a network in all of the violence-prone communities across the country, rolling out restorative justice, mediation and other conflict resolution techniques at the community level;

● train and empower 500 violence interrupters across Jamaica;

● partner with the private sector and other stakeholders to expand Project Star into a truly national programme, including access to training, mentorship, remedial education and job placements for youths at risk;

● enact legislation that targets the known vicious purveyors of criminal violence across Jamaica and brings them to justice, including a court-supervised process of pre charge detention that targets persons on whom there is credible intelligence to facilitate building viable cases that can result in successful prosecution;

● bring much greater focus to reforming the prison system to reduce the high level of recidivism by rehabilitating offenders to become productive citizens rather than reoffenders when they return to society;

● provide the police force with vehicles, equipment and training needed to efficiently respond to, investigate and prosecute offenders;

● build out the Jamaica Eye system of cameras to enhance citizen security and ensure greater accountability for criminal behaviour;

● provide mental health support, including adequate rest, to law enforcement officers, to help them cope with the difficulties of their work in Jamaica and to

● partner with NGOs to support well-designed, sustainable community-based interventions that focus on anger-management, parenting skills, conflict resolution and overall civility, and substantially increase the number of social workers to take on these critical tasks and build social cohesion within communities.