The Justice Training Institute is to train and sensitise more than 1,500 justices of the peace (JPs) this year, focusing on mediation techniques and restorative justice. This was disclosed by Director and Principal of the Justice Training Institute, Karen Campbell-Bascoe, in a recent interview on the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) television programme, ‘Issues and Answers’. “There are several other areas...

Jamaica is being touted as a regional leader in its operation of drug treatment courts (DTCs) and a model for other countries implementing them. Representative of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Jamaica, Jeanelle van Glaanen Weygel, says experts from Jamaica have played a key role in the establishment of drug treatment courts in Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados. She...

One hundred and fifty-two Justices of the Peace (JP) across six parishes have received training in mediation techniques since the start of the year. The parishes are St. Catherine, Kingston, St. Andrew, Manchester, Clarendon and St. Elizabeth. The training, which got under way in February, is in keeping with the justice reform agenda of the Ministry of Justice, aimed at reducing...

Minister of Justice, Hon. Delroy Chuck, says the Government is looking at expanding its treatment services to offenders with substance-abuse problems, by establishing drug treatment courts in all parishes. The courts, which are currently operating in five parishes, provide an alternative to incarceration for drug-dependent offenders, where they benefit from treatment and rehabilitation under judicial supervision. The Minister was addressing...

Jamaica is among six countries that will benefit from an additional CAN$833,000 in financial support from the Government of Canada for the monitoring and evaluation of drug treatment courts. The other countries are Barbados, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama and the Dominican Republic. The funding, which is to be provided over the next two years, will also help the...

Participants in two pilot household energy-conservation and -efficiency workshops in Waterhouse and Greater Brown’s Town in Kingston are hailing the initiative as an effective undertaking, and have expressed the hope that strategies being introduced will significantly reduce their electricity bills. The workshops, which were staged by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Caribbean Clean Energy Program (CARCEP) in...

The Legal Aid Council is committed to ensuring that all Jamaican citizens have access to quality legal representation regardless of their financial resources. Executive Director of the Council, Hugh Faulkner, in making the declaration on the Jamaica Information Service’s (JIS) ‘Issues and Answers’ television programme recently, said the perception that the legal service offered by the State is inferior needs...