Provisions under Jamaica’s updated Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) (Amendment) Act, 2021, also known as the Anti-Gang legislation now allow for the prosecution of criminal groups.
This was disclosed by Jeremy Taylor, senior deputy director of public prosecutions at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), during the Ministry of Education and Youth’s Anti-Gang Week Townhall on November 17.
Anti-Gang Week is being observed from November 13 to 19, with the theme ‘Leggo Di Gang, Lift Up Jamaica.’
Taylor said the Act initially prosecuted an individual despite other members engaging in criminal activity.
“What has changed with the new legislation is that we no longer have to look at individuals, because up to 2014 we really could only prosecute the individual, irrespective of what other persons may have done either in the background or foreground. You could only move against the individual in that respect. Now, this new Act allows us to move against groups and you have seen that we have brought certain groups to trial,” he said.
He said the law, which was passed in 2014 and amended in 2021, now allows all those involved in criminal activity to be prosecuted regardless of their role.
“Even if you are not the trigger person, you are the person who drives them to do the crime, you are charged as a facilitator of the criminal offence, just as how if you are the person who shoots the person, you are also charged as the facilitator of the criminal offence,” he said.
He added that the law also states that individuals who engage in actions that help a gang are also breaking the law.
“It speaks about providing a benefit to a criminal organization. These are the gun bags; if you carry the guns for the criminal organization to hide or to ‘lock’, you have provided a benefit. If you carry the stolen goods, you carry them to a pawn shop and you sell them, you have provided a benefit. If you get a doctor for a person, knowing he is a member of a gang and has committed a gang-related activity, you have provided a benefit…. The law has tried to cover all the major areas,” Taylor said.
The activities slated under Anti-Gang Week are being hosted by the Ministry of Education and Youth, in collaboration with the JCF.
According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), gang violence accounts for an estimated 80 percent of the country’s murders.
