Desmond Robinson | Code, not con

Jamaica’s crime numbers have finally started telling a new story, and we dare not waste the window it opens. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has framed the national stance succinctly: “We are being very intentional in the fight against crime. We are being strategic and coordinated, and we are confronting criminals and criminality.” He has also been blunt with offenders: “Change yuh ways ... find something else to do.”

This is the moment to do more than reduce crime. It is the moment to convert talent, especially among the young men powering Jamaica’s most notorious unlawful “industry”, lottery scamming, into a productive digital workforce.

Anyone who has watched the evolution of scamming in western Jamaica knows it demands rare combinations of skill: sleuthing, social engineering, database assembly, cross-border money movement, and basic scripting. Recent multi-agency raids in St James seized over J$27–28 million, multiple high-end vehicles, and led to a string of arrests, evidence of both the scale and the capability involved. It is no accident that senior police link scamming to shootings and murders: the profits feed gangs and trigger violent disputes.

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has warned that “much of the evolving crime and violence revolves around the use of digital instruments”, insisting that public education, training, and cutting-edge cyber capacity are now national security imperatives. Parliament, for its part, moved in 2026 to modernise the Cybercrimes Act, strengthening protections against online abuse and tightening enforcement against the digital tools of crime.

So, the question before us is not whether Jamaica should crush scamming. Of course, we should. The question is whether we will also capture the underlying talent – and redirect it to cybersecurity, fintech, e-commerce, and the digital public sector.

NATIONAL CONVERSION PLAN

The late Nelson Mandela gave us the blueprint: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” If we take that seriously, then the ‘weapon’ for Jamaica’s scamming crisis is not only handcuffs; it is selective amnesty to apprenticeship pathways, rigorous training, and verifiable work opportunities, grounded in law, ethics, and restitution.

Here’s a five-pillar programme Jamaica can implement :

1. When the JCF and MOCA seize devices, cash, and ledgers, they also uncover the skill profiles of networks. After prosecutions and full restitution orders, create an opt in talent registry (administered by HEART/NSTA Trust with MOCA vetting) for eligible first-time, non-iolent offenders under 25 who plead guilty and accept a supervised training-and-work order. This complements – not replaces – penalties. It prioritises victims and sets a high bar: breach the programme and you return to court. (The feasibility aligns with the government’s stated thrust toward intelligence-led, multi-agency responses.)

2. Build a six to 12 month cyber bootcamp that transitions social-engineering prowess into defensive security, secure coding, cloud administration, and KYC/AML operations. Scale these to include CompTIA Security+, SOC analyst tracks, and Certified Ethical Hacker prep, with embedded ethics and victims’ impact modules.

3. Create a paid service year for graduates to harden the networks of schools, health centres, municipal offices, and MSMEs. Pair trainees with JCF’s communication, forensics and cybercrime division for supervised incident response drills, while building local SOC capacity.

4. For programme participants under court order, set mandatory wage garnishes into a victim compensation fund, alongside financial literacy coaching. This meets justice claims while letting talent earn legitimately.

5. Formalise hiring pathways into BPO security operations, fintech compliance, fraud analytics, and public-sector SOCs. Jamaica is already expanding its cybersecurity posture and data protection compliance; industry is hungry for local talent who understand real-world attack surfaces.

MACRO WINDS FAVOUR CONVERSION

Crime is down, giving us operational bandwidth to try bold prevention plus conversion strategies rather than triage alone. Digital skills infrastructure is expanding: a three year, EU supported Digital Jamaica programme is scaling broadband, workforce upskilling, and MSME digitalisation; national partners are distributing devices and training teachers and students at scale.

STATIN reports the youth unemployment rate around 10–11 per cent (October 2025), with overall unemployment near historic lows– meaning the next marginal job gains must come from new sectors and up skilled entrants.

OBVIOUS OBJECTIONS

“Won’t this reward criminals?”

No. Eligibility follows guilty pleas, restitution, and strict conditions. The offer is not a “get out of jail card” but a work and repay sentence that produces safer communities and taxpayers instead of recidivists.

Can scammers be trusted in sensitive roles?” Not automatically. That’s why roles begin in low-privilege environments, with continuous monitoring, ethics instruction, and progressive trust tiers, a model common in second-chance cybersecurity programmes.

Jamaica’s upgraded data protection regime and the cyber-law amendments supply the compliance scaffolding. “Is scamming really shrinking?” Enforcement is accelerating, see St James operations, but tactics are morphing, not vanishing. That is precisely why we must dry up the labour pool by offering better uses of the same brains, aligned to market demand and national needs.

THE MORAL ARGUMENT

In Manchester, last year, the prime minister pledged to “uproot” lottery scamming before it can take hold in new spaces, pairing security with social intervention. He also insisted there was “no hiding place” for those importing guns and fueling violence. Good. Keep the pressure on the networks. At the very same time, we must be equally intentional about what we want these young men to do instead.

Jamaica’s economy is digitising; cyber resilience is now infrastructure, not a luxury. The government says so; the private sector proves it daily; schools are racing to catch up. Our national calling is not merely to punish wrongdoing, but to multiply right doing. If we can produce world-class musicians from inner-city sound systems, we can certainly produce

world-class threat hunters from the same post codes. The same young man who once phished a pensioner in Florida can be trained to defend a clinic’s patient records server in St Thomas. The capacity is already there; only the moral compass, mentorship, and market pathway are missing.

The boys on the corner have already shown us their capacity. It’s time we show them their country’s potential.

Pastor Desmond Robinson is Chaplain at the Northern Caribbean University. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com