Kumasi, May 28, GNA – The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) Africa Office, has paid for the release of six inmates at the Kumasi Central Prison.
These offenders were serving jail terms between six (6) months to 15 months for their inability to pay court-imposed fines ranging from GH¢ 480.00 – GH¢ 960.00.
All the six released offenders were young persons from age 22-29 and were convicted for assault and stealing.
One of the beneficiaries, a 22-year old Senior High School (SHS) graduate, was arrested for pushing his father to the ground during a fight between the two.
Unable to pay the GH¢ 480 fine imposed by a District Court he was sent to the Kumasi Central prison to serve a term of six (6) months.
He had served two (2) months of the jail term until CHRI paid for his release.
The total fine for the six people was GH¢ 3,191.00. Additionally, each offender was given an amount of GH¢ 200 to facilitate their movement to their homes.
Mr. Anthony Sedzro, Project Officer, Access to Justice, CHRI, said the gesture is part of CHRI’s ongoing project titled ‘Increasing Advocacy for the Decriminalization of Petty Offences through Covid-19 Response Interventions’.
Activities under the project included paying the court-imposed fines of not more than One Thousand Cedis (GH¢ 1000.00) per head for at least sixty (60) petty offenders in prison for them to be released as part of efforts to help decongest Ghana’s over-crowded prisons.
Data from the Ghana Prison Service indicates that the country’s prisons are overcrowded by 52 per cent in terms of capacity
Mr. Sedzro said the situation was not the best, especially in this COVID-19 era where social distancing was difficult in the prison space due to overcrowding.
He said the CHRI had, already, paid for the release of ten people across five prisons, James fort prison in Accra, Winneba Camp prison, Awutu Camp prison, Ankaful Maximum and Koforidua prison.
He appealed to the duty-bearers to expedite action on decriminalizing petty offences in line with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights principles on the decriminalization of petty offences in Africa as well as passing a non-custodial sentencing law in Ghana.
This, he believed, would help decongest the prisons and decriminalize poverty as people who are jailed in default of court imposed fines for certain minor offences are mostly poor and vulnerable members of society.
Deputy Superintendent of Prisons (DSP) Francis Yaw Appau, Assistant Criminal Records Officer, Kumasi Central Prison, commended the CHRI for the gesture and said such moves will go a long way to ease the pressure on the facility.
He said the Kumasi Central Prison currently had in excess of 1,800 inmates, and that such initiatives would help reduce the pressure on the other prison facilities in the Region where they normally transferred some of these petty offenders.
DSP Appau said a chunk of inmates in various prisons were petty offenders with those involved in high profile criminal cases accounting for a few percentage.
The ex-convicts expressed their profound gratitude to CHRI for the gesture and pledged to be of good behaviour as they regained their freedoms.
GNA