Government of Jamaica
The Jamaican Justice System Reform Project (JJSR) was established by the Government of Jamaica to undertake a comprehensive review of the state of the justice system and to develop strategies and mechanisms to facilitate its modernisation so that it is better able to meet the current and future needs of Jamaicans. A modern justice system will be more efficient, accessible, accountable, fair and able to deliver timely results in a cost-effective manner.
A Modern Justice System
The Government of Jamaica has assigned a high priority to improving the justice system as part of its public sector modernisation programme. Many reforms have been introduced in specific areas and other initiatives are currently underway. However, these measures for the most part, have been piecemeal rather than applied to the justice system as a whole. The old structures and the traditional ways of doing things remain in place. In order for reforms to be truly effective, the entire system needed to be assessed and a cohesive, broad ranging strategy to modernise the justice system needed to be developed and implemented. This was the objective of the JJSR comprehensive review – an initiative of the Government of Jamaica led by the Ministry of Justice and the Public Sector Reform Unit of the Cabinet Office, with support provided by a team from the Canadian Bar Association.
The JJSR Task Force
The JJSR Task Force was established by the Government to provide guidance to the comprehensive review and to make practical achievable recommendations to achieve the modernisation of the justice system. The Task Force was comprised of representatives from the various sectors of the justice system and civil society. The report contains the JJSR Task Force’s findings and recommendations.
