I look forward to community sentencing – Chief Justice

The Chief Justice Sophia Akufo has hinted of plans to initiate processes for the amendment of the sentencing provisions of the criminal Procedure Act to allow Judges to sentence convicts to community service.

“On Community service, I will be very happy if we have more opportunity to sentence people to community service and if you’ve been listening to the news in the past months there have been a number of Programs to discus the amendment to the sentencing provisions of the criminal procedure Act to make it possible for the community service to be ordered in lieu of imprisonment”

Community sentence or non-custodial sentencing in criminal justice is name given to all different ways in which courts can punish offenders convicted,other than imprisonment.

Many including the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) have been advocating for this form of alternative sentencing for persons who commit minor or petty offences to help curb decongestion in Ghana’s Prisons and reduce Government expenditure on inmates.

The Chief Justice, responding to a question asked by a student on the subject matter during a mentoring Program organized for some selected students at the forecourt of Koforidua Highcourt Tuesday as Part of her working visit in the Eastern Region, welcomed suggestions for noncustodial sentencing in Ghana’s Criminal Justice system.

“The government attention has been duly drawn to the need to amend this part of our law to enable the more lenient form of punishment be meted out as and when the situation requires but we the judiciary has to act particularly in Criminal cases we need to act in accordance with realm of the Law”.