Judiciary to introduce sentencing policy

The Judicial Service would soon introduce a sentencing policy to ensure greater consistency in sentencing and uniformity of practice among judges.

The introduction of the policy, expected to guide not only sentencing but also various areas of practice of the bench, is also to ensure the public is satisfied with the ruling given by judges.

Justice of the Supreme Court, Joseph Bawa Akamba, said, “It is to ensure that the public is satisfied and we are also satisfied that at least our people are performing uniformly guided by the literature that we will be producing.”

Justice Akamba said this during a two-day training workshop for journalists on court proceedings and how the justice system works, in Accra.

The workshop, organized by the communication department of the judicial service with funding from the Department for International Development (DIFD) had participants taken through the court room procedures and judicial hierarchy of Ghana.

It was also to make the judicial service more accessible to the public and also to guarantee effective reportage of issues relating to the Judicial Service.

He said the literature would look at the various cases that commonly came before the court, various offenses provided under the various statutes and the penalties they provide.

“We are going to work within the status that created those various offenses and the penalty for those offenses.”

So the policy is just going to ensure that within the discretion that you have from zero to your maximum, how will you exercise it? In what instance will you employ the lowest possible on the ladder that you have been given?”, he asked.

Justice Akamba said the concerns would be egged out to guide every judge so their sentencing would have very minimal differences.

He also noted that provision for non-custodian sentencing would be addressed in the new policy.

“Within the sentencing spectrum, there is provision for non-custodian; the guide will streamline the instances when one will have to resort to non-custodian or custodian and how high can a judge go on a sentencing ladder for a particular offense,” he noted.

He said consultations have been made and various debriefing held among judges “and I think we are getting to the end. We are working at it and it will come out soon.”

Justice of the Court of Appeal and Director of the Judicial Training Institute, Samuel Marful-Sau, said the workshop was to bridge the gaps created in court reportage as a result of inadequate court room knowledge.

“We are not going to teach you how to report but to make you appreciate what is being done at the court so you can report better.”

He therefore urged the participants to take advantage of the programme to enhance their knowledge on reporting court stories.