Prisons Should Be a Place Of Reform Not Punishment To Persons

Mrs. Adelaide Kobiri-Woode with the Attorney General's Department in Sekondi of the Western Region has emphasized that prisons should not be looked at as a place that somebody goes there just to be punished but should be a place that the person goes there to be reformed.

She said stakeholders should pay attention to relevant provisions or Act that has to be amended to reduce persons that goes to prison.

According to her, the government of Ghana should place a premium on Alternative Disputes Resolution as they live in an era where they have a lot of minor or petty offences in the system.

This was made known in Takoradi at a stakeholders' Roundtable Discussion On Advocacy To Review Alternative Disputes Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798) and Legal Aid Commission Act, 2018 (Act 977) To Include Petty Offences

Moreover, one can not be in isolation to amend Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) and Legal Aid Commission (LAC) Acts without amending the Criminal Offences Act itself.

Mrs. Adelaide with the Attorney General's Department in Sekondi in her view called for an amendment of the Criminal Offences Act (Act 29 and 30).

She said the idea is to amend the aforementioned Acts as they look at non-custodian sentence, plea bargaining, holistic approach such that the entire laws would be taken care of before other laws which would allow petty offences to be settled by Alternative Disputes Resolution but not the usual way of going to court.

Mrs. Kobiri-Woode in an interview with Nana fynn stated if some premium is placed on Alternative Disputes Resolution, parties could subject themselves to ADR and have the court even adopt some the things they say with prisons not being choked.

Superintendent Ibrahim Yakubu at the Sekondi Prisons in the Western Region has stated that the introduction of Alternative Disputes Resolution "ADR" will help decongest the prisons, if being implemented.

Mr. Yakubu stated that, the idea of "ADR" if being pushed, accepted and embraced will make them have time to concentrate on major offences including robbery, murder cases among others.

It was organized by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) under the USAID Justice Sector Support (JSS) Activity.

Superintendent Ibrahim Yakubu continued that, when the prison is decongested they once again have ample time to reform and rehabilitate offenders as when they come back to society, they can contribute to development.