NINE MONTHS later and ... nothing. After the tabling of six crime bills, crafted with urgency by the Bruce Golding administration to tackle the worrying crime wave affecting the country, the legislative measures are yet to be debated.

This is despite the submission of a report by the parliamentary committee which reviewed the bills.

Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives, Andrew Holness, told The Gleaner last week that several pieces of legislation on the Order Paper would be debated today. However, he said, "The six crime bills are still under negotiation, so those are not ready."

To date, approximately 624 Jamaicans have been murdered since the beginning of the year.

Despite the fact that crime remainsthe country's number-one problem, 281 days after the crime bills entered Parliament, there is still uncertainly about when these legislative matters will be debated and passed.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, in a presentation at the Jamaica Labour Party's 65th annual conference in November 2008, said an additional 220 spaces would have been created at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre to house inmates, in anticipation of the enactment of the proposed laws.

Controversial provision

One of the controversial provisions of the anti-crime bills is a proposal to detain, for 60 days, persons who have committed other crimes while on bail.

"If we get these anti-crime bills passed in the House, I am sure we are going to need more space to lock up people," Golding said, at the JLP conference.

The bills were referred to a joint select committee of Parliament in September. Four months later, the committee completed its deliberations after receiving submissions from a number of stakeholders and other members of the society.

A 25-page report was tabled in the House in December with the signatures of government MPs and senators. However, the Opposition members of the joint select committee had not signed the report, triggering speculation that they were not in support of the measures.

Opposition spokesman on justice and former attorney general, A.J. Nicholson, in an earlier interview with The Gleaner, made it clear, that the absence of Opposition members' signatures on the document was not an indication that PNP parliamentarians would attempt to stall the passage of the proposed pieces of legislation.

Not properly written

Giving a reason for not attaching their signatures, Nicholson said: "The report was not properly written, and that is why we did not sign it."

Nicholson also added that it had lacked recommendations to Parlia-ment on how to proceed.

Rocked by the increasing incidence of murders last year, the administration, in July, met with the Opposition at Vale Royal to discuss legislative solutions to the problem.

Golding had said Jamaica was experiencing extraordinary times, which required extraordinary measures.

Strong resistance came from a number of human-rights groups, who took issue with some provisions in the bills, contending that they were Draconian.

edmond.cambell@gleanerjm.com

The crime bills are:

An act to amend the Bail Act.

An act further to amend the Firearms Act.

An act to amend the Offences Against the Person Act.

An act to Amend the Parole Act.

An act to make interim provision in relation to the grant of bail in specified circumstances.

An act to make interim provision extending the powers of arrest and detention under Sections 50B and 50F of the Constabulary Force Act.