29-year-old Kwadwo Danquah has been jailed for eleven months for beating his younger brother for disrespecting him.
Narrating what led to the fight, Danquah said his brother took his pillow and used it without his permission while he was also using it. He admitted that his grandmother complained bitterly about his stubborn lifestyle but he was not bothered about it.
“The following morning when I confronted my brother about what he did, he challenged me but I am the elderly child. I engaged him in a fight and pushed him onto a glass sliding door which cut him causing him some injuries,” he said.
The unemployed man indicated that he had not been able to secure a job since he finished his Polytechnic education. He said that has rendered him idle making the devil find work for him.
“I have made efforts to get employed but to no avail. Due to that, I follow a gang of friends,” he indicated.
Speaking to the Ambassador Extraordinaire of Ghana’s Prisons, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, Danquah said his brother lodged a complaint with the police causing his arrest.
He said he admitted to beating his brother and ‘I pleaded guilty for taking the law into my own hands’ in Court.
The young man who said he has regretted his actions said ‘my brother’s injury was not a serious one which should have ended me here’.
He said the Judge fined him Nine Hundred and Sixty Ghana cedis or in default serve an eleven-month jail term.
But Mr. Kwarteng who is also the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation (CCF) explained to him that he was not in the position to determine whether his brother’s injury was serious or not.
Mr. Kwarteng further indicated that his unemployed status is not an excuse for his misdemeanor. “Many of the youth are not engaged in crime and the abuse of drugs though they are unemployed so you shouldn’t say because you do not have a job it is a guarantee for you to attack people and take the law into your own hands.” He cautioned.
The advocate for the passage of the Non-Custodial Sentencing urged government to fast track the bill’s passage into law to help forestall the overpopulation of prison facilities.
“Danquah’s punishment could have been his to service in the community not to be in prison. Many of such petty offenders in our prisons have led to congestion but if the non-Custodial Sentencing law had been passed it would have helped to decongest many of these facilities which are gradually breaking down. We are pleading with government to ensure its passage as soon as possible,” he entreated.
With support from a couple based in the US, Mr. and Mrs. Koomson, the Foundation paid Danquah’s fine for his release.
Crime Check Foundation interview prisoners bringing to bare the harsh conditions in the prisons to serve as a deterrent to the general public to desist from engaging in crime.
By Rudolph Nandi
