Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
DR. HORACE Chang, Member of Parliament for the volatile North West St. James constituency, maintains that a social intervention programme is needed among the crime management strategies to stem the high level of crimes, particularly murders, in the parish.
"I maintain my original policy. It has to be a two-pronged approach towards crime. There has to be a level of social intervention especially for our young men that will make them employable," explained Dr. Chang, who is also a deputy leader of the Jamaica Labour Party. "The other is to give the police the appropriate training and adequate equipment for their job."
SURVEY FINDINGS
According to the MP, findings of a socioeconomic survey he conducted in St. James revealed that 60 per cent of the men, between ages 16-40, were only educated up to grade nine level.
The study also found that 57 per cent of the total number of males were unemployed.
In this regard, Dr. Chang says he was fine-tuning a proposal for a skills training programme to be established in the troubled areas of Flankers, Norwood, Glendevon, Rose Heights, Canterbury and Mount Salem.
"It will be pre-vocational training tied with a socialisation programme. The aim is to have participants moving from pre-vocational to formal training institutions," he stated. "I am completing the project writing and looking at partnering with the HEART/NTA and the Social Development Commission."
STAGGERING MURDER TALLY
A stakeholders meeting to discuss the project has been scheduled for later this month.
The parish of St. James recorded a staggering 139 murders last year, 10 more than the figure for 2004.
Commanding officer for the police division Superintendent Warren Clarke, told The Gleaner on Monday that he expected the crime rate to decrease in 2006. Already, however, two homicides have occurred in the parish since the start of this year.
