News
‘Community service sentencing will decongest prisons’
A one-day sensitisation workshop for key stakeholders on community sentencing in Ghana has taken place at Takoradi in the Western Region.
The key stakeholders are traditional authority, assembly members, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), People with Disabilities (PWDs), the legal department, and the security agencies among others.
The main objective was to seek their views on community sentencing as a better correctional method compared with custodial sentencing.
The Paralegal and Education Officer at the Sekondi Prisons, Superintendent of Prisons), Mr. Ibrahim Yakubu, in his delivery said the prisons were correctional places but not a place of punishment as some people thought.
He said the prisons rather consumed without producing anything and the amount spent on each prisoner was woefully inadequate therefore community sentencing would reduce government expenditure in prisons in the country.
He said if community sentencing became part of the law and implemented, it would decongest the prisons and money which was spent on prisoners would be channelled into other development projects.
He said the prisons did not have enough equipment like sewing machines, machines for making footwear, dryers for hairdressers among others, so if the number in the prisons were reduced, the few machines available would pave the way for active and proper learning teaching at the skills training workshops for inmates.
Supt. Yakubu admitted that the prisons in Ghana were overcrowded because minor and less risky offenders were given custodial sentences with few fine payment options unlike countries like Rwanda, Burkina Faso and others where minor cases were given community sentence.
He said it was long overdue for Ghana to consider passing laws to include Non-custodial sentencing to community sentencing in the justice delivery systemin order to decongest the already overcrowded prisons.
A Director at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Africa Office, Miss Mina Mensah, said there were many advantages because a convict would work in his or her own community and the young convicts would would not stop their education because they could work and still go to school.
She noted that people went to prison because there was no other means of sentencing and the society did not allow any integration so convicts were forced to go back to commit crimes in order to remain in prison.
The Programme Manager of CHRI, Madam Esther Poku-Atuahene said the Community Service Bill was a better alternative to custodial sentencing because it would benefit the community and the nation at large.
She mentioned cleaning, collection of rubbish, redecorating community spaces where the community used as public gathering areas as some of community sentencing.#
From Peter Gbambila, Takoradi
News
GES directs Ashanti Regional, Obuasi Municipal Education Directors to step aside over Obuasi SHTS scandal
The Management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has directed the Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Dr. William Amankrah Appiah, and the Obuasi Municipal Director of Education, Mr. Kwamena Owusu-Nketiah, to step aside with immediate effect.
The directive forms part of ongoing investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct involving the headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Mr. Zakaria Abdulai.
According to GES, the decision is intended to ensure that the investigations proceed without potential interference, nor the perception of it.
The two directors are to hand over their offices and all state property in their possession to the Deputy Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mr. Thomas Kwame Boateng.
Management added that the headmaster, Mr. Zakaria Abdulai, also remains interdicted and therefore urged the public to ignore any news circulating that he has been cleared.
Management is calling for calm, support and cooperation as thorough investigations into the matter continue.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has joined the family of the late Professor Jason Atta Kwei Arday, the Ghanaian community in the UK, and other dignitaries for a memorial service in Southwark, UK.
In a post, Mr. Ablakwa described the service as deeply moving and unforgettable, held in honour of the late professor’s memory.
According to him, in keeping with the government’s pledge, he joined the family, Ghana’s High Commissioner to London, British MPs, Ministers, the Mayor of London, Cambridge scholars, Prof. Arday’s students and loved ones to pay respects and honour his inspiring legacy.
Mr. Ablakwa noted that Prof. Arday’s accomplishments as the youngest Black professor appointed at the University of Cambridge and his widely appreciated charitable contributions will continue to inspire generations.
“The Government and People of Ghana will continue to stand by our compatriots everywhere they are in the world. As we do so, we profess our commitment to justice, equality and the creation of a new world,” he said.
He prayed for fortitude for the family in what he described as an extraordinarily difficult time.
“We shall always remember Prof. Arday for his response when asked what he will wish to do to change the world: ‘I would take a thread and a needle, and I’d interweave love into our society’,” Mr. Ablakwa added.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
