Custos Rotulorum for St. Andrew, Hon. Ian Forbes (fourth left, front row), shares a photo opportunity with the 112 newly commissioned Justices of the Peace for the parish. They were sworn into office during a ceremony at the Caribbean Military Academy Auditorium, Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Headquarters, Up Park Camp, Kingston, on Saturday (May 18).

More than 20 high-school students from Waterford High School in Portmore, St. Catherine, participated in discussions about alternative justice services, during National Children's Day (May 17), a Child Month event, held at the Ministry of Justice’s Constant Spring Road offices. They also took part in a tour of the Legal Aid Council’s Mobile Justice Unit and the Office of the...

The Victim Services Branch (VSB) in the Social Justice Division of the Ministry of Justice remains well positioned to respond to cases of sexual abuse involving minors. Director of the VSB, Dionne-Dawn Binns, informed JIS News that the branch is alerted to cases of sexual abuse against children once these matters are reported to the Centre for Sexual Offences and...

The Restorative Justice (RJ) Branch in the Justice Ministry is making strides in diverting children away from the criminal justice system with fewer than 300 RJ case conferences involving children held up to the end of the 2023/24 fiscal year. Addressing a recent JIS Think Tank, Director of the RJ Branch, Joanalee Robertson, said that the low number of child-related...

The Restorative Justice (RJ) Branch in the Ministry of Justice is working to ensure that the conflict resolution skills that school participants learn through the restorative practices training programme have a lasting impact on the institutions. Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Youth, more than 12,000 participants from...

The Victim Services Branch (VSB) is taking a trauma-focused approach in caring for children who are victims of crime. The approach involves special interventions to help children feel safe, work through their feelings, respond to their symptoms and prevent them from being re-traumatised. Speaking at a JIS Think Tank on Monday (April 22), Director of the VSB, Dionne Dawn, said...

Parents are being encouraged to be vigilant and seek the requisite support services and interventions when they observe emotional and behavioural changes in their children in the aftermath of traumatic events. This urging comes from Director of the Justice Ministry’s Victim Services Branch (VSB), Dionne-Dawn Binns, who was speaking during a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ at the...