By Mildred Siabi-Mensah
Sekondi, March 27, GNA – The judiciary has processed a total of 12 cases in the Sekondi central prisons under the Justice for All (JFA) programme .
Three accused persons were convicted and imprisoned, two granted bail, two discharged, three refused bails, three referred for psychiatric care and one absent.
Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, Justice of the Appeal Court who announced this after sitting in the Sekondi central prison said the Judicial service had planned reforms to improve upon jury and criminal trials.
She said the reforms would include, supporting plea bargaining under Section 162(A) of Act 1079 to help reduce prison overcrowding and that investigators would be encouraged to work diligently to prevent prolonged detention of remand inmates.
Justice Asare-Botwe, used the occasion to express her gratitude to lawyers from the Public Defenders Division of the Legal Aid Commission for providing representation and counterpart funding for the implementation of the event and related ones held in Tamale, Sunyani, Ho and here in Sekondi.
“This year’s Justice for All Programme was fully organised and funded by the State Institutions; the Judicial Service, the Office of the Attorney-General and the Public Defenders Division (PDD) of the Legal Aid Commission”, she added.
Under Article 14(4) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, a person who is arrested or detained must be released—either unconditionally or on reasonable conditions—if they are not tried within a “reasonable time,” even if further proceedings may follow.
However, what amounts to a “reasonable time” has not been clearly defined in law.
Justice Asare-Botwe said this lack of clear standards, together with institutional challenges, had led to many accused persons in Ghana being held on remand for excessively long periods without trial.
According to her, in some cases, detainees had spent more time awaiting trial than the maximum sentence for the offence they are accused of committing.
As of Second March 2026, the data from the Ghana Prisons Service Records Units indicated that the total inmate population was 13,620, which comprised 1,745 (12.81%) remands11,875 (87.19%) convicts.
Since 2007, when the then Chief Justice, Justice Georgina Theodora Wood introduced the programme, it impacted positively on the remand population in the prisons, bringing it down from 30.57% to 12.23% currently
In 2007, the total prisoner population was 13,800, out of which 4,218 were remanded or pre-trial inmates, constituting 30.57% of the total prisoner population.
She attributed the improvement to good collaboration and capacity building of Criminal Justice Institutions; Judiciary, law enforcement, Prosecuting Institutions such as the Office of the Attorney-General, and the Legal Aid Commission.
The judiciary, she announced, had introduced nationwide training to ensure judges strictly follow Section 96 of the Criminal Procedure Act and Supreme Court decisions when dealing with bail.
” The Justice For All has become a symbol of our commitment to upholding the rule of law, safeguarding human rights, and ensuring that justice is not delayed or denied through timely hearings for remand prisoners, the programme has reduced unnecessary detention, strengthened public confidence in the justice system, and contributed to prison decongestion”, she added.
She urged the public, NGOs, civil society, and the media to acknowledge the progress made and avoid using outdated information to misrepresent Ghana’s criminal justice system, particularly regarding remand prisoners to support and strengthen this initiative, ensuring that Ghana remained a beacon of justice, fairness, and humanity.
GNA
Edited by Justina Hilda Paaga/George-Ramsey Benamba