Thursday, September 18, 2008

300 held illegally • Nsawam Medium Security Prison

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 (Lead Story)

THREE hundred remand prisoners are still being held at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, in spite of the fact that their warrants have expired, an Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Civil Liberties (CHURCIL), Mr Kojo Graham, has disclosed.
At a stakeholders’ meeting on the Justice For All Project organised by the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s Department in Accra last Monday, Mr Graham said the continued stay of the accused persons in prison was illegal because their warrants had not been renewed.
He later explained to the Daily Graphic that the expiration of the remand warrants meant that those remand prisoners were being kept illegally unless a court renewed the warrants for their continued detention.
The prison authorities, on the other hand, cannot release the remand prisoners because they have not received any court order to that effect.
Mr Graham further explained that the courts could only renew the warrants if the remand prisoners were put before them by the police.
In addition to those whose warrants had expired, he said, the dockets on a total of 600 prisoners, including the 300 at the same prison, could not be traced when officials of the centre conducted a six-month check on remand prisoners at Nsawam.
The Justice For All Project is an initiative of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department and is aimed at bringing justice to the doorstep of all citizens, especially the vulnerable in the society.
The meeting, which was attended by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, his deputy, Mr Osei Prempeh, representatives from the Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana Police Service and the Judicial Service, was aimed at reviewing the progress, challenges and the way forward for the project.
Other stakeholders at the meeting included officials from the Attorney-General’s Department, the President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Nii Osah Mills, representatives from Legal Aid, the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), among other stakeholders.
According to Mr Graham, it also came to light during the inspection that 40 of the remand prisoners had been on remand for between six and 14 years.
He said it was unfortunate that the documents on the said remand prisoners could not be traced by officials of the CHURCIL who were working in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s Department, the judiciary and other stakeholders to ensure the effective administration of justice to all Ghanaians.
Mr Graham, therefore, called for a review of the system, by which the contact addresses of remand prisoners, as well as the police stations where they were remanded and the name of the judge who remanded them, would be provided.
He said there was also the need for the name of the investigator of the case, the nature of the offence, among other relevant information, to be provided for effective follow-ups on remand cases.
According to Mr Graham, it also came to light that there were not more than 10 prosecutors handling criminal cases at the Cocoa Affairs Court in Accra where a chunk of the remand prisoners emanated from, adding that there was, therefore, the need for the development of a database from which all cases could be tracked.
He said apart from the initiative to give freedom to deserving remand prisoners, special courts must be set up to handle the backlog of remand prisoners at the country’s prisons.
Another Executive Director of CHURCIL, Mr Andrew Daniels, explained further that the remand prisoners were being held in contravention of Article 14 of the 1992 Constitution.
He said more remand prisoners were being interviewed and noted that the number might exceed the 600 on completion of the project.
He said under the project, remand prisoners who were already in the prisons and those who were remanded daily were being monitored.
According to him, the project was aimed at coming up with mechanisms to decongest the prisons, adding that majority of those remand prisoners were being held for basic offences like theft and assault.
He called for an effective system for the monitoring of dockets on prisoners, adding that the situation which put accused persons at the mercy of the availability or otherwise of dockets should be a thing of the past.
For his part, Mr Ghartey congratulated CHURCIL on working effectively on behalf of the Justice For All Project and called for a system to ensure the effective monitoring of arrests and the subsequent remand and conviction of persons.
He also called for the training of prosecutors to carry out their work efficiently in order for justice to prevail at all times.
The Attorney-General said his outfit, the Police Service, the Judicial Service and all other stakeholders needed to work together as a team for the speedy and satisfactory adjudication of criminal cases in order to maintain public confidence in the country’s criminal justice system.
Mr Ghartey formed sub-committees which would be co-chaired by the Attorney-General’s Department, the judiciary and the GBA to speed up the quest to provide justice for all Ghanaians.
A representative of the Ghana Prisons Service, Mr Ben Quaye, said the issue of remand prisoners must be looked at critically because majority of the inmates of the Nsawam Prison were remand prisoners.
He said the large number of remand prisoners occupied majority of prison officers who escorted them to court on a daily basis, instead of the officers staying in the prisons to fully cater for the needs of convicted prisoners.
A Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Jones Dotse, said following public outcry against the piling up of cases in the courts, the Chief Justice set up a committee to look into the matter for redress.
He said as a result, 426 cases, comprising robbery, narcotic offences, rape and defilement, were put before vacation judges who were currently hearing those cases.
He said it was the first time such an initiative had been taken and expressed the hope that other stakeholders would contribute their quota to ensure effective justice delivery.
Mr Justice Dotse said delays in the adjudication of cases could be attributed to poor handing-over notes by judges and police officers who went on transfer or peacekeeping operations.
He also called for the establishment of guidelines and deadlines for the adjudication of cases.
The Justice For All Project was launched by Mr Ghartey on September 27, 2008.
There are four components under the project, namely, the remand review, the sentencing policy, the prosecutor’s capacity building and the systems and procedures analyses project.
More than 56 prisoners have received their freedom since the inception of the project which is currently ongoing .

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