Westmoreland gets association for JPs
Published:Wednesday | April 6, 2022 | 12:06 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck formally launched the Westmoreland Justice of the Peace Parish Association which will represent those to serve in the parish under the auspices of their custos, Hartley Perrin, guided by an elected executive body.
He said the ministry is aiming to establish a formal body of active justices of the peace (JPs) in each parish and that while several parishes have accepted the charge, Westmoreland was now among three other parishes with a formal parish association.
“All the parishes are very shortly to have launches for their parish association. Many have actually started, but in terms of formal launches, this is probably about the third or fourth, but many of the parishes have formed their parish associations already,” Chuck told reporters in Westmoreland last Saturday.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH
He noted that the parishes of Clarendon and St Catherine will have their official launch today and Saturday, April 9, respectively. Manchester, Hanover, and St Andrew have all had formal launches of their parish associations.
“The idea is that these parish associations are to pull all the JPs together, so collectively they can work for the benefit of the parish ... we want them to really contribute to the justice and peace in every community,” the justice minister noted.
With the Justice of the Peace Association Jamaica taking shape, when quizzed about what will become of the Lay Magistrates Association, Chuck said: “The lay magistrate will be a subset of the parish association – just like within each parish association, you will have mediators, you will have restorative justice facilitators, and you will have counsellors for victim services.”
Chuck, however, noted that approximately 50 active lay magistrates assigned to each parish will continue their operations under the guidance of their custodes.
“They are likely to within themselves have subsets of mediators, subsets of restorative justice facilitators, and you’ll find that within many of the JP Association, they have smaller groups that engage in a particular practice.”
“Some of them visit the jail, some of them visit old people’s home, but to the extent that the lay magistrates had been an association before I have encouraged the magistrate, under the auspices of the custos, to improve and collaborate with other lay magistrates across the parishes under the Lay Magistrates Association of Jamaica, and improve their practice.”
The lay magistrates association had in recent times expressed the view that the justice minister failed to follow their ruling to have their association as the umbrella association for all JPs in their respective parish association, a practice that has been in existence for over 40 years, despite many JPs are not trained and commissioned as lay magistrates.
Responding to the disagreement, the justice minister said what was perceived as a disagreement was overplayed because the majority of the JPs across the island, in any one parish, are refusing to be led by the Lay Magistrates Association on the basis that they are not commissioned as lay magistrates.
“To the best of my knowledge, I think the disagreement is a bit overplayed. What had happened was that they wanted the lay magistrates to represent all JPs and they claimed that lay magistrates should be the ones to represent all JPs,” Chuck explained.
“Within any parish, I doubt if you have more than 30 or 40 lay magistrates practising, while in all the parishes there are over 500 JPs [each] – so to say that the lay magistrates who elect their president, and so on, should be in charge of all the other JPs would not be appropriate.”