Justice System Under Severe Stress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 27, 2009

JUSTICE SYSTEM UNDER SEVERE STRESS...PM GOLDING

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, explaining the stress on Jamaica's justice system has noted that for last year alone, there were some 345,000 cases listed for the Resident Magistrates courts. This does not include the numbers listed in the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal. Of the total some 90 percent involve criminal offences.

Mr. Golding was speaking this morning (May 27) at the start of the Ministry of Justice Third International 2-day Conference on restorative and community justice. He said ‘We have resource constraints as many countries do but ours is particularly severe and so over many years we have not been able to invest and allocate the resources that are sufficient to maintain our justice system at a level that would be adequate to cope with the pressures imposed on it".

The Conference on restorative and community justice is now underway at the Knutsford Court hotel in Kingston. It is based on the theme, ‘Transforming individual, family, community and country' and is designed to train Justices of the Peace, institutional and community leaders in the move to establish community Justice Tribunals in Jamaica.