Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

PRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding has sent one of his strongest messages that criminality will not be tolerated by the Government.

Speaking at the Jamaica Labour Party's 65th annual conference at the National Arena yesterday, Golding said he would not allow criminals to overrun Jamaica.

"It is a matter of deep and great concern to me," the prime minister said as he spoke on the state of crime.

More than 1,400 people have been murdered this year, nearly 700 women have been raped and almost 400 children carnally abused.

"I am not here to plead with the criminals. These vicious, dog-hearted murderers and rapists have two things in common; first of all, they are hard of hearing and secondly, they need to be caught, taken out of the society and severely punished," Golding said.

He pleaded with the Opposition People's National Party for greater cooperation on the six anti-crime bills which the Government hopes to use to stem the tide of crime and violence and said his government was committed to making Jamaica safe.

As a demonstration of his intent, Golding said an additional 220 spaces were being created at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre to house inmates in anticipation of the enactment of the laws.

Proposal

Among the anti-crime measures is a proposal to detain, for 60 days, persons who have been involved in certain crimes while on bail.

"If we get these anti-crime bills passed in the House (of Repre-sentatives), I am sure we are going to need more space to lock up people," Golding said.

"We have instructed the com-missioner of corrections to go get the space ready because we have some murderers and some rapists out there who we can't pronounce guilty," he added. "But until they are found guilty, some of them are so wicked and bad that we feel that we ought to have a nice guest house somewhere to put them so that they can stop raping people and stop killing people."

Golding said a lack of opportu-nity and poverty could not adequately explain the levels of crime the country is experiencing and that he would not take a purely academic approach to fighting crime.

"Running government is not an extension of some university tutorial. I respect them and I respect their scholarship," Golding said while noting that the problems must be met with drastic action.

"I am respectful, but I am not persuaded by those who say that we must be gentle, that our main purpose must be redemptive."

He added: "I subscribe, I uphold the principle that someone in our system is innocent until proven guilty. But innocent until guilt is proven is not to be used as a firewall against law enforcement."

Golding shared with the conference his experience of losing his 99-year-old aunt under tragic circumstances last year. She was raped and then murdered in the United States.

"It is hard not to get emotional about it. Hard!" the prime minister exclaimed.

"When people talk about the impact of murder and rape, nobody needs to come and preach to me," Golding said.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com

GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO CRIME

The operations of the police emergency number - 119 - will be privatised to enable efficiency. It will be managed like a call centre.

Some aspects of police training to be outsourced in order to create space for the training of more police.

Emergency number - 211 - to respond to child emergency. Line not yet activated.

The set-up of a control room to know where every police unit in the island is at all times.

Merge the Police Service Commission and the Police Public Complains Authority to ensure greater control and efficiency.

Creating housing stock to accommodate police who travel around the island to work.