Ground broken for state-of-the-art forensic pathology autopsy suite
Published:Monday | November 15, 2021 | 12:05 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Ground has been broken for a state-of-the-art forensic pathology autopsy suite at 149 Orange Street in Kingston.
The project is expected to cost taxpayers over half a billion dollars and should be completed in 15 months.
Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang, during the main address, said that breaking ground signals that the Government has made a commitment to the country that they have equipped the security forces to deal with the demands of crime today.
“It encompasses using science and providing the scientific proof ..., the autopsy suite will represent the last activity in a phase to create one of the finest institute of forensic science and legal medicine in the Western Hemisphere, and I can say that without giving technical details”, Chang said.
He added that although the government revenue was hit by the pandemic, his ministry was committed to spending millions of dollars to complete the pathology suite.
“We have to invest in the security services and the security forces,” Chang said.
Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson said he has been looking forward to the project for many years because of how critical it is in the landscape of law enforcement.
Anderson said that as a country, we have seen consistent violence on our shores that will not go away because we wish it to.
“It will disappear and be reduced when the various pieces that have to come together to get it reduced are there. There is no one piece in this system that is going to get us where we want to go,” Anderson said, pointing out that stakeholders should be doing things differently.
An autopsy suite is a critical part of the chain in the criminal justice system, Anderson said.
“It’s only when it’s built and we start using it that we will ask the question, how on earth were we operating without it? It is something obviously not front and centre in the minds of most people,” he added.
The police commissioner said that the challenge for law enforcement is having the right tools, and a forensic autopsy suite will serve to address a critical component to get convictions in the way they wish.
FREE OF INTERFERENCE
West Kingston Member of Parliament (MP) Desmond McKenzie, whose constituency the forensic pathology autopsy suite will be situated, gave his support and promised that the running of the project would be free of interference.
“This project will have no problem. There will be no dons and ‘donnetts’ on this site. There will be no extra pay bill to facilitate work. That will never happen in this constituency on this project; and as the MP, I am giving Minister Chang that commitment,” McKenzie said, urging contractors to complete the construction on time and within the allocated budget.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security (MNS), Courtney Williams, who dubbed the project a “legacy undertaking”, said successive administrations have been discussing the construction of a pathology autopsy suite and several attempts have been made to implement it.
“For many years and at a cost of approximately $100 million per year, the Government has been outsourcing pathology services that are carried out in a largely unregulated funeral home industry, which impacts security and justice outcomes, particularly for deaths that warrant forensic analyses to scientifically establish cause,” Williams said at the launch of the project on Friday.
The contract to construct the forensic pathology autopsy suite has been awarded to HDB Construction Limited in the sum of $547.4 million.
The ministry said a further US$1.29 nillion is estimated for the acquisition of specialised equipment to furnish the completed structure for operational use.
Dr Judith Mowatt, executive director, Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, expressed satisfaction that plans were moving beyond lip service to provide a state-of-the-art forensic pathology unit, adding that the groundbreaking ceremony was many years in the making.
“This modern forensic facility will assist families who have lost loved ones; help to advance public safety within the country; and contribute to and strengthen the criminal justice system in Jamaica,” Mowatt said.
The security ministry outlined that currently, the majority of medicolegal autopsies are conducted in private funeral homes across the country and due to their business model, which is primarily for mortuary and burial services, they are generally not designed nor equipped to provide all the necessary facilities for the provision of modern forensic pathology services.