The brutal and diabolical slaying of young Danielle Rowe has understandably shocked a nation that has seen too many of these incidents. The prior slaying of five in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, is no doubt still fresh in the minds of people, but the cold, calculated killing of Danielle, in which her throat was slashed and her body dumped like roadkill, is particularly jarring.

With every such incident there is the usual ritual of hand-wringing, grief, and outrage from the society. But like that which attends the mass killings from guns in the United States, the society seems helpless to address these incidents with any modicum of assurance that we can get on top of the problem. Member of Parliament (MP) Lisa Hanna put it best in her contribution to the discussion on Danielle’s murder in the Parliament recently. She said we become outraged as a society when these things happen, but very little is done to bring any practical solution to deal resolutely with the presenting problem. Like American leaders calling for prayers after each outrageous mass killing by the gun, we indulge ourselves in a ritual of rage but do nothing until the next incident happens. Then the ritual starts all over.

It is not simply that we are given to nine-day wonders in Jamaica. We are faced with a systemic problem in which the institutional framework to deal with these problems is woefully lacking. At the centre of this is the burgeoning problem of mental illness in the society, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sometime ago Prime Minister Andrew Holness spoke about an initiative to tackle mental illness at the community level, with the church being suggested as an integral part of this initiative. In response to that announcement, I wrote a piece in which I encouraged the formation of a mental health commission, fully staffed and funded, and run by professionals drawn from the mental health community who would know what they are doing. I even suggested Dr Saphire Longmore, psychiatrist, to head this commission.

What has become of this initiative, Mr Prime Minister? To the best of my knowledge, nothing further has been said about the matter. If something is being done, we would welcome an update. What is clear is that the instances of mental health illness are not abating but, in fact, increasing. Sadistic or psychopathic killings of our young people as they are being played out in our society are deeply rooted in the dysfunctions of a society at war with itself.

The usual default arising from anger and outrage is to call for the death penalty for those who commit these heinous crimes. This sentiment is encapsulated in the words of MP Robert Montague, “Let us hang them by the neck until they are dead.” Like others, I have agonised over the death penalty and felt comfortable that it would assuage my anger if the killer of young Danielle, when caught, tried, and if found guilty, would be quickly dispatched from among us. After all, Danielle could have been my child. Such brute beasts, I thought, should have no comfort living among us.

But then I checked myself. If my theory is correct that such brutal killings are deeply rooted in the psyche of societal dysfunctions, will hanging someone bring an end or even hasten an end to the evil forces which give rise to these brutal killings? While mine and the anger of others will be temporarily soothed, will hanging remove the root causes of people becoming so psychopathic or pathological that they are inure to the suffering of the young innocents they kill?

Thus, for me, capital punishment cannot be the cure. Part of the cure will begin when we invest heavily in the training of mental health professionals, deploy them to communities, and give them the resources they will need to do an effective job. To robustly address this situation, we need something akin to a Marshall Plan to address mental illness in our society, remove the associated stigma, and give people the assurance that like all other sicknesses they can be helped by therapy and medication to rise above their problems. There is no systematic arrangement in the Jamaican society that can make this a reality.

It is time the Government sees this as a national crisis and give it the attention and resources which it richly deserves before things get worse. And worse they will get if we continue to sit on our laurels.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; The Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.