Criminal justice system mustn’t be source of injustice

Last week, 12 remand inmates at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, some of whom had spent up to 11 years on remand without trial, were discharged under the Justice for All Programme (JFAP).

The JFAP, an initiative commenced in 2007, seeks to decongest the country’s prisons with specific focus on accused persons on remand.

The initiative is spearheaded by the Judicial Service of Ghana, facilitated by the POS Foundation, a civil society organisation, with support from other stakeholders in the justice delivery system such as the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Prisons Service, the Legal Aid Commission and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.

Statistics from the Ghana Prisons Service show that the JFAP has been a great success. The statistics revealed that as of  May 2024, the total prison population of the country was 14, 647, as against authorised prison capacity nationwide of 10,265, meaning the country’s prisons are overcrowded by 4,382 inmates.

The statistics further show that the total prison population is made up of 13,057 convicts and 1,590 remand prisoners. Due to the JFAP, the statistics revealed that the percentage of remand prisons over the total prison population had reduced from 33 per cent in 2007 when the JFAP started to 10 per cent during the period under review.

The Daily Graphic commends all stakeholders for making the JFAP a success and bringing some relief to accused persons on remand. However, major reforms are needed to stop such injustice and protect the rights of accused persons and all persons who are caught up with the criminal justice system.

It must be noted that under Article 19 (2) (c) of the 1992 Constitution, a person charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Accused persons, therefore, have no business spending years in prison when they have not been found guilty of committing any offence.

It is for this reason that the Supreme Court in the case of Martin Kpebu versus Attorney-General, declared as unconstitutional the law which hitherto made some offences non-bailable, and made bail possible in all cases at the discretion of the trial judge.

Apart from violation of Article 19(2) (c) of the 1992, incarcerating accused persons in prison for many years without trial as if they are convicts violates many other fundamental human rights such as the right to dignity under Article 15, right to personal liberty under Article 14 and the right to fair trial under Article 19.

What makes it worse is the fact that sometimes, the terms of imprisonment for the offences some of these accused persons are charged with are less than the number of years they spend on remand awaiting their trial.

In 2021, at an event on criminal justice reforms, a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, decried the injustice in the criminal justice system, especially with regard to the circumstances under which some accused persons ended up on remand for many years, without trial, describing such situations as sheer wickedness.

Justice Kulendi said outrageous bail conditions, unnecessary remand, coupled with extortion and corruption in the criminal justice system demonstrated how unfair and wicked some people could be towards their fellow human beings.

The Daily Graphic associates itself with Justice Kulendi’s comments and calls for significant reforms that will stem the injustices in the criminal justice system. Most of the victims of such injustices are poor people who do not have the means to even feed themselves, not to talk of hiring the services of lawyers to defend them.

Such reforms must not only protect the rights of individuals, but must also hold public officers whose actions and inaction lead to such unpardonable and grievous human rights violations.

Again, the reforms must provide a compensation system where victims of injustice under the criminal justice system are compensated to offer them some form of relief.

Our criminal justice system must speak to the motto of this country: “Freedom and Justice,” and should not be a source of injustice.