Parishes of Jamaica Parishes of Jamaica Administratively, Jamaica is divided into fourteen parishes. They are grouped into three historic counties, which have no administrative relevance. Every parish has a coast; none is landlocked. The traditional county towns were Savanna-la-Mar for Cornwall County, Spanish Town for Middlesex County, and Kingston for Surrey County. The parishes of Kingston and Saint Andrew together form the "Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation". Parishes have been a feature of local administration in Jamaica since the island was captured by the English in 1655. The number has varied over time and some no longer exist having either been absorbed into
Politics of Jamaica power is vested both in the government and in the Parliament of Jamaica. A bipartisan joint committee of the Jamaican legislature drafted Jamaica's current Constitution in 1962. That Constitution came into force with the Jamaica Independence Act, 1962 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which gave Jamaica political independence. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, freedom of movement, and freedom of association. The judiciary operates independently of the executive and the legislature, with jurisprudence based on English common law. The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated Jamaica as "flawed democracy" in 2016. Parliament