The Ministry of Justice continued to develop strategies to improve the delivery of justice and strengthen public trust and confidence in the system.
Infrastructural Developments
• More than $772 million was allocated for capital development for the 2019/20 fiscal year.
• Justice centres were opened in St. Elizabeth and St. Andrew.
• Contract signed for the refurbishing of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at a cost of more than $626 million.
Making Justice Services More Accessible
• For the period January to October 2019, the Mobile Justice Unit visited 85 communities/locations. The Unit registered/encountered 1,002 persons of which 896 of whom requested legal services.
• The Legal Aid Council (LAC) launched its first official website to increase citizens’ access to information and services provided by the Council.
• The Legislative Production Management System (LPMS) was introduced. The LPMS is an efficiency boosting software that seeks to reduce the propensity for errors through the provision of defined workflows for legislative tasks.
• Memorandum of understanding signed with the United Kingdom’s Depart- ment for International Development (DFID), for the provision of a $51 million grant to fund the unification of prosecutorial services and strengthen the overall operations of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
• Child Diversion Programme stakeholders’ sensitisation sessions were held.
• Phase three roll-out of Jamaica’s justice reform programme, targeting
implementation of the social order component.
• Signing of Cooperation Framework Agreement between the Jamaican International Arbitration Centre Limited (JIACL) and Jamaica Chamber of Commerce to promote the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) across all sectors of the economy.
Justices of the Peace
• 422 Justices of the Peace (JPs) were commissioned for the period January to November 2019.
• 1326 JPs were trained between January and November.