Mrs Adelaide Kobiri-Woode with the Attorney General’s Department in Sekondi of the Western Region has emphasized that prisons should not be looked at as a place where somebody goes there just to be punished but should be a place where the person goes there to be reformed.
She said stakeholders should pay attention to relevant Acts that have to be amended to reduce persons that go to prison.
According to her, the government of Ghana should place a premium on Alternative Disputes Resolution as they live in an era where they have a lot of minor or petty offences in the system.
This was made known in Takoradi at a stakeholder’s Roundtable Discussion On the need to Review the Alternative Disputes Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798) and Legal Aid Commission Act, 2018 (Act 977) To Include Petty Offences.
Moreover, one can not be in isolation to amend the Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) and Legal Aid Commission (LAC) Acts without amending the Criminal Offences Act itself.
Mrs Adelaide with the Attorney General’s Department in Sekondi in her view called for an amendment of the Criminal Offences Act (Act 29 and 30).
She said the idea is to amend the aforementioned Acts as they look at the non-custodial sentence, plea bargaining, holistic approach such that the entire laws would be taken care of before other laws which would allow petty offences to be settled by Alternative Disputes Resolution but not the usual way of going to court.
Read Also: Eastern Regional Teacher’s Awards Launched
Mrs Kobiri-Woode further stated if some premium is placed on Alternative Disputes Resolution, parties could subject themselves to ADR and have the court even adopt some of the things they say with prisons not being choked.
Filed By Benjamin Bray Kantanka TV W/R Correspondent
To launch your own website or blog site, or need someone to manage and assist with your website, click here to talk to an expert now
