'Let's review sentencing policy'

Daily Graphic (pg29), Wed, May 19/10

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A retired Prison Officer, Deputy Director General of Prisons (DDGP), Hayford Okpoti Korney, has observed that the country needs to review its sentencing policy to incorporate more non-custodial sentencing to address overcrowding in prisons.
“As a nation, we need to adopt a proactive and preventive approach rather than reactionary interventions,” he said and added that “we must adopt best practices”.
DDGP Korney made this observation at a pulling-out ceremony organised in his honour by the Ghana Prisons Service in Accra.
In his farewell speech, he said the issue of overcrowding had been the bane of the service for many years and that currently, the rate was about 70 per cent which posed a big challenge to the service.
He said it was unfortunate that the service on its own could not address the problem without the collaboration of the police, the courts and the Attorney-General’s Department, which had crucial roles to play.
The retired DDGP Korney urged all stakeholders to show greater commitment to addressing the high rate of overcrowding in the prisons.
He said although the Justice for All Programme introduced in 2007 was to address the issue of protracted remand, it was yet to make the desired impact, as “it appears to be too slow and required a review of the strategy”.
According to him, the Ghana Prisons Service had come a long way and has seen some impressive transformations at various fronts including improved transportation, regular supplies of uniforms, a new ICT department, research and monitoring units among others.
However, he said the service had a long way to go as budgetary allocation from the central government would continue to be inadequate and it would be expedient to source funding outside its budget to address some of its challenges, including residential accommodation.
He called for an expedited action on efforts to modernise the outdated prison rules and regulations in order to produce a new Prisons Service Act.