GHANA: WHY PENAL REFORM AND NOT ''THE JUSTICE FOR ALL PROGRAMME'' IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO PRISON OVERCROWDING

Ghana's criminal justice system to a large extent, has been fashioned on that of our colonial master's , the British criminal justice system, as inherited on the eve of the country's independence. This will explain how and why our court structure and system is a clear replica of that of the British court structure and system.

However, whereas the British have in their democratic sense of wisdom continue to reform their system as relevant and appropriate, within the context of democratic framework,developed other structures to assist and support the court system, and indeed their criminal justice system, Ghana which found it that neccessary, to as it were copy cat this system of justice administartion, is reluctant to re-fashion it's criminal justice system to reflect best and evidence-based practice that characterises the British criminal

justice system, just as in most developed and developing societies.

Whereas the British penal system focuses much more on the rehabilitative and reformative features of punishment, having undertaken reforms in pursuant of this agenda,an agenda which encompasses alternative to custodial sentencing ethos ,Ghana is still comfortable with that old, archaic and anachronistic penal system, which has emphasis on the 'punishment fits the crime philosophy' .

No doubt, the system's sentencing policy provides for only financial penalties/fines and imprisonment as the only two mechanisms for sentencing

The British criminal justice system , which is the bedrock of Ghana's has a sentencing guideline for magistrates and judges , which regulates the conduct of the bench in terms of sentencing. A guideline that promotes equality and justice before the law and provides the framework that ensures the true meaning and rationale of sentencing.

Sentencing, l must stress is purpoted to ensure and promote the prevention of further offending by the offender, offer protection to the public and for that matter the community, serve as a deterrence, promote and advance the rehabilitation of the offender in as much promoting re-settlement and re-integration of the offender into his/her community.

This would explain why alternative to custodial sentencing is seen as the most credible and well tested approach and or response to criminal behaviour in the British system

A penal policy that has a developed offender management systems and protocols in which the sentencing guidelines have focus on community -based sentences,a mechanism that promotes the management of those offenders who commit minor offences or misdemeanors in the community .

The 'magistrates sentencing guidelines' provides for offenders sentenced to statutory community orders to be supervised by trained and qualified probation officers, within the context of a national standards for the supervision of offenders - a national standard that determines the processes and protocols of the enforcement of any court orders.

Significant community-based sentences include a probation order ( adult offenders) , youth rehabilitation order ( young offenders) with specific activities requirements such as offending behaviour programmes, drugs/alcohol intervention programmes, conflict management, sex offenders treatment programmes etc.

These programmes are focused on the offender's specific criminogenic needs, with the purpose of addressing them

Probation orders will provide a statutory framework within which the probation officer has the mandatory task of confronting and challenging the adult offenders about his/her offending lifestyle(s), assist and support them address whatever perceived difficulties or challenges that confront them daily

Another alternative to custodial sentencing within the context of community sentencing is community service. This explains that community service is another element of a community sentence and provides the opportunity for the courts ,to sentence offenders to specific number of hours for unpaid work for the benefit of the community, under the supervision of trained and qualified community service officers.

In this way ,custody is reserved for the dangerous, recalcitrant , sophisticated and hardened criminals of the society and not for offenders who may have robbed a mobile phone, have been selling pure water on street pavements in Accra, theft of a goat, a bunch of plantain or indeed those who might have committed very minor offences of any kind, and in the case of juvenile offenders to be a last resort as determined by both the Childrens'Act 1998 and the Juveneile Justice Act 2003.

Although the prison population in the British criminal justice system is nothing compared with that of Ghana, l dare say that the over crowding of Ghana's prison estates is due to the rather myopic , archaic and anarchronistic penal policy that has woefully failed to provide an opportunity for the rehabilitation ,re-integration and re-settlement of offenders in this country, which we seem not to be interested in reforming.

It is no evidence of a higher criminal behaviour or crime rates in our country, but an indictment of the failure of our criminal justice system to appropraitely respond to the offending behaviour of offenders in this 21st century Ghana.

It is this policy failure that really accounts for the the prison over crowding phenomenon and explains why the so called justice for all reform programme cannot adequately address the congestion of our prisons.

My main beef with the programme is the lack of the relevant and appropriate structures and mechanisms that should have been developed to support and assist the excercise

For one thing l am unaware of the services of psychotherapists/psychiatrist to undertake clinical assessments of those being released willy nilly

Furthermore, those being released should have been provided with services in terms of health screening to determine their status of vulnerability in terms of those diseases that may compromise public health and public safety, and provide them with the neccessary medical intervention, including counseling input and services

It would have been appropraite to provide each of those being released with an NHIS registration status, as part of any resettlement and re-integration package

The concern also is that these released prisoners, do not have the benefit of any resettlement officers, who should have been co-ordinating their release into the community, a resettlement officer, who would have undertaken visits to their putported homes, assess and ascertain the likelihood of the prospects of any refusals of family memebers to receive them back home and develop alternative strategies to meet their housing needs

This resettlement officer would access these released prisoners in terms of their emplyability and develop relevant and appropraite programmes of support and intervention that can effectively promote their re-integration and re-settlement into their communities.

The assessment is that the ' justice for all reform'' cannot and must not be seen as the panacea to prison congestion in Ghana, given the lack of the professional will to address this hydra -headed phenomenon through the most credible,prudent ,realistic and appropriate penal policy reform strategy, a strategy which conforms to United Nations Minimum Standards and that of the philosophy of Penal Reform International's agenda for prison reforms globally.

THE AUTHOR WHO IS AN OFFENDER MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, IS AN ADVOCATE FOR PENAL REFORM IN GHANA

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