Gov’t will Expand Justice Programme – PM

Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has said that the government intends to expand the Ministry of National Security’s Justice Programme, as part of measures to tackle crime and violence.
She said the programme has already had tremendous success in the pilot communities where it had been implemented.
The Prime Minister, who was speaking at a community meeting at the Royal Geographic Society in London on Saturday (March 3), said the Justice Programme has been “working with troubled communities to see how we can get rid of tensions and eventually eliminate any kind of crime and violence in those communities”.
She informed that the initiative had reaped much success and the results have been overwhelming. “The people are uniting, they are working together, they are coming up with their own suggestions as to how they can strengthen their communities, and we are going to expand it,” she pointed out.
Stating that crime and violence remained a major challenge, she assured that the government was working hard to address the problem, by pushing the community agenda.
“If you have strong, united and peaceful communities, if you build communities, you will have a strong united Jamaica. Strong and vibrant communities will lead to strong and vibrant parishes and strong and dynamic parishes will lead to a much stronger Jamaica,” she said to thunderous applause.
“The Prime Minister in a wide ranging address, told the audience of United Kingdom-based Jamaicans, that as they continued to make valuable contributions to their adopted homes, as well as to Jamaica, they should not allow the misdeeds of a few to undermine their accomplishments.
“What has happened is that very often, the valuable contribution that the majority of you are making is never highlighted. It is the negative of the few that is highlighted. Members of the Diaspora must work to change that,” she pointed out. You must stand up and ensure that they highlight your positive contributions,” she added.
Mrs. Simpson Miller, who on March 30, will mark her first year as Prime Minister, paid tribute to her predecessors, noting that through her work, she hoped to protect their legacies, while creating a better way of life for all Jamaicans.