Palmer: The complex will comprise facilities for restorative justice and mediation services. - File

The central Jamaican town of Mandeville is to have a new $500 million judicial complex.

The Government yesterday signed off on the design, awarded to architects Harold Morrison and Robert Woodstock, at the Justice Ministry, in New Kingston. In another two months the contract for construction of the complex will be put to tender.

Carol Palmer, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, disclosed that the complex will house a family court, a continuously sitting circuit court, a regional gun court and an improved Mandeville resident magistrate's court.

The regional gun court will handle firearm crimes committed in the southern section of the island, Mrs. Palmer explained.

Adequate facilities

She said the new complex was being designed with "enough facilities for witnesses, security consideration (that is) technology enabled, and proper facilities for restorative justice and mediation services".

When constructed, it will also serve to reduce the number of inefficiently utilised out-stations currently being used in the court system, she added.

Several other contracts were signed yesterday for improvements in various facilities under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry. One is for the procurement and installation of a standby generator and UPS system at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Court of Appeal. Another is for architectural designs for the Morant Bay court in St. Thomas and the Barry Street Coroner's and Traffic courts in the Corporate Area. Those contracts are valued at just over $67 million.