Avoid imprisonment of pregnant women -Emile Short

Ghana’s Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Emile Francis Short has called on the courts to avoid imprisonment of pregnant women except for serious offences. Alternatively, he said, their imprisonment could be suspended until after delivery in order that the child does not suffer for the mother's transgression. Short was presenting a paper on "Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms Under the 1992 Constitution" at a seminar organised by CHRAJ for 80 Prison Officers from Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions in Kumasi.

He urged the Courts, Police and Prison Officers to be vigilant and ensure that juveniles are not remanded into prison custody to avoid their being mixed with adult prisoners and hardened criminals.

He stressed the need for the Judiciary, the Attorney General's Department, the Prison Service and the Ghana Bar Association to make a concerted effort to deal with outstanding court cases in view of the high number of suspects remanded in prison custody.

Short called for effective use of non-custodial sentence, saying: "the power to remand a suspect and to impose a custodial sentence should be exercised with circumspection.

"It serves no useful purpose, either for society or the convict, to sentence a person to a prison term especially for minor offences. Such a policy compounds the congestion problem and the inability of the State to accommodate, feed and provide health care for the present prison population"

The Commissioner said the cases of condemned prisoners, some of whom have spent 13 years and above in condemned cells, should be critically examined considering the deplorable, excruciating and deprived conditions in which the condemned prisoners live.