A Rule of Law Specialist with the Legal Resources Centre, Enoch Jengre has called for more inputs into the Non-Custodial Sentencing Bill to make it effective when passed into law.
He said the current bill does not make clear-cut provisions, that will ensure its efficiency when the bill eventually becomes law.
Mr. Jengre who was speaking on TV3’s ‘New Day’ on the role of the Case Tracking System (CTS), a component of the USAID Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA) in enhancing justice delivery, said the bill currently contains some loopholes which if not addressed could defeat its purpose.
Today’s discussion was aimed at increasing public education and knowledge on the need for a Non-Custodial Sentencing law in Ghana.
While appreciating the move by the AG, Mr. Jengre however said that the bill will receive some digital inputs among other suggestions from stakeholders in the justice delivery chain. He said the JSSA is therefore organizing a workshop to give the stakeholders an opportunity to share ideas to make the bill more comprehensive before its passage.
His view comes at the back of an indication by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Odame that the Non-Custodial Sentencing bill will be laid before parliament for its passage into law. The bill if passed into law is expected to help decongest the prisons, as petty offenders will be asked to undertake community sentencing instead of serving custodial sentences.
“The bill in its current form is to a certain extent appreciable but of course we still need to review it further. For instance, I don’t see a clear-cut provision which talks about when someone is supposed to serve a community service order,” he argued.
He proposed that ‘there should be a community service officer and a supervising officer to ensure that the person serving the order does so. If we don’t have a clear-cut provision we are actually going to create a vacuum where someone may help the person serving the order because he is a relative or a friend.”
The Rule of Law Specialist said views from institutions including the Local Government Service and the Department of Social Welfare will be sought and presented to the AG through the Ministry of Interior before it goes to parliament for passage.
An Assistant Legal Aid Officer, Emmanuel Bosomwa said the meting out of outrageous bailing conditions which accused persons are unable to meet is one of the challenges that has contributed to congestion in prisons. Mr. Bosome said courts must be re-sensitized on the bailing system and made to act within a strict framework.
“Our bailing system must be redefined so that the court will act within a strict framework and the framework must take into consideration the ability of the accused person to meet the conditions,” he said.
He explained that the basis for denying an accused person bail is when it is suspected that the person may refuse to return for trial.
USAID Justice Sector Support Activity
The USAID Justice Sector Support Activity (JSSA) aims at increasing citizen knowledge and access to Justice Sector services, strengthening advocacy interventions for accountability of key Justice Sector Institutions to improve justice delivery, and increasing citizens’ oversight and monitoring of criminal cases to enhance justice delivery.
