Buchanan tells Parliament youth crime stems from missing jobs and skills pathways

People's National Party MP Isat Buchanan told Parliament that youth crime should be understood chiefly as a failure of opportunity, not merely a policing challenge. He pointed to young residents in Mountain View and Granville and asked whether they have realistic paths to employment, marketable skills, or self-employment.

Buchanan said training programmes must align with where jobs exist, entrepreneurship support must reach unattached youth, and the state must do more than rely on law enforcement. On special education, he cited government figures showing 275 special-needs students received shadow assistant support and 230 new shadows were trained, but argued those numbers fall far short of demand. He said parents of children with disabilities have been forced to plead publicly for help that ought to be guaranteed, and that a long-promised diagnostic centre at Case has missed repeated deadlines. The opposition, he said, will press the government on that timeline and on building a proper national special education assistance system.

Buchanan also pledged scrutiny of young people leaving state care so they do not disappear from oversight once they turn 18. He set out an opposition policy package covering safety, foundations, and opportunity. On safety, he called for guidance counsellors and deans of discipline matched to school enrolment where needed, a monitored timetable for school CCTV, public reporting on child abuse cases investigated to conclusion, and funding to clear backlogs of children awaiting placement and clinical care. On foundations, he proposed a dedicated funding route to place a trained teacher in every childhood institution. On opportunity, he backed a youth employment and unattached-youth strategy, a youth innovation centre in every parish, and skills training tied to actual labour-market demand.

He highlighted social media as an economic avenue, citing TikTok creator June Rosealee Dickson as an example of youth industry. Buchanan said the digital economy education programme Deep, launched in Portland Eastern under Ainsworth Edmond, aims to help young people become content creators rather than passive consumers. He invited other members to replicate the initiative.

Buchanan said inclusion requires full national delivery of special education assistance and the diagnostic centre, while aftercare should guarantee that no young person leaving state care ends up homeless, with transparent annual reporting on housing and unemployment outcomes. On constitutional reform, he said the opposition supports Jamaica becoming a republic, removing the British monarch as head of state, and enacting a constitution made by Jamaicans for Jamaicans, adding that agreement across the House is the path to change.