Chuck: 4,000 JPs missing in action
Published:Tuesday | April 12, 2022 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has raised concern that nearly half of the island’s 9,600 justices of the peace (JPs) seem to be missing in action.
Their disappearance has come at a critical juncture when their services are needed for matters of peace, justice, alternative dispute resolution, and child diversion, among other things.
According to Chuck, under whose portfolio the nation’s JPs are commissioned to serve, more than 4,000 of those currently on roll cannot be found and there is no data to indicate whether they have migrated overseas or to another parish or whether they have died.
He said that the reality was borne out by an ongoing audit being conducted by the Ministry of Justice, pursuant to the 2018 Justice of the Peace Act, which mandates that all JPs submit an annual return and outlining the services that they have been providing in their communities, among other things.
“In this audit of the 9,600 justices of the peace that we are aware of across Jamaica, only just over 5,000 have reported. Somehow we don’t seem to be able to find the other 4,000,” Chuck said during a three-day visit to Westmoreland last week to launch an alternative dispute resolution programme.
Chuck added that too many JPs seem more interested in using their titles as a status symbol instead of serving the people who they have been commissioned to serve.
He said that the ministry was now in the process of issuing new seals in compliance with the 2018 JP Act, which will now identify them as a justice of the peace of Jamaica – as opposed to a particular parish – thereby broadening their geographic reach.
That process, however, is being hindered as so many cannot be found.
“If we can’t find them, we are going to assume that they don’t exist. We are just going to remove them from the roll because we can’t assist them with a new seal and with a NIDS (National Identification System) card showing that they are a JP,” the justice minister insisted.
JPs play a key role in authenticating and authorising important documents such as birth certificates, passport photos, proof of address, and character references, among other duties, for citizens.
With greater responsibilities, JPs are viewed as persons of unquestionable integrity who seek to promote and protect the rights of individuals and help to give justice to those persons in a particular community.