Regional Effort to Address Crime and Violence

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says he will be working with other Caribbean governments to address the problem of crime and violence in the region.

The Prime Minster, who is in Trinidad and Tobago attending an event entitled ‘Regional symposium: violence as a public health issue – the crime challenge’, said that crime and violence is “indeed a public health crisis” and is, in many respects “at epidemic proportions”.

He noted that Jamaica has been dealing with the issue over the last three or four decades and “we’re also seeing other countries that didn’t have a crime problem before now having a crime problem and a violence problem, particularly in murders”.

The Prime Minister informed that the region is, therefore, “putting its collective effort, its collective mind to the problem”.

He noted that his participation in the symposium is to “see what strategies, what ways, what means we can bring to bear on this now regional problem”.

The symposium, which is in its inaugural staging, was announced following the recently held 44th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in The Bahamas.

The two-day event is being hosted by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in the capital of Port of Spain and continues tomorrow, April 18.