Security official George Overton says Jamaica’s education system needs to be strengthened to give young people better avenues away from crime and violence.

Overton, who is director of operations at the Guardsman Group, made the charge while speaking during today’s opening session of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s inaugural security summit, which is being held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St James.

Further, he asserted that another area in need of reform is Jamaica’s prison system.

He also called for a change in the culture around violence in the country.

He warned that if young people are not given adequate alternatives to crime, they will become easy recruits for criminals.

“Those values and attitudes need to be drilled into the youngsters at an early age and we have to make sure our education system is realigned with what is happening in the country. As our students move toward tertiary education, what are we creating for them to study? We need to get all that realigned,” said Overton.

His call came on the heels of recent acts of violence involving students.

Concerning the penal system, Overton argued that institutions have become a networking site for criminal activity as opposed to a means of punishment and rehabilitation for wrongdoing.

According to him, Jamaica’s security infrastructure has been neglected over the past 50 years with an undertrained security force and insufficient courts to handle the volume of cases.

The chamber’s two-day summit, which concludes on Thursday, is being held under the theme ‘Collective Security – Unity in Action.’

– Christopher Thomas

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