Justice Sector Support Activity implementation team meets D-G of Prisons

The USAID Ghana Justice Sector Support Activity implementation team has paid a courtesy call on the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Mr Patrick Missah.

The visit forms part of efforts to engage more stakeholders in the criminal justice chain on the importance of the Case Tracking System (CTS) in enhancing efficient justice delivery in Ghana.

The implementing partners, comprised the Legal Resource Centre, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Crime Check Foundation.

The Project, supported by USAID, creates the platform for Ghanaians to engage with the Prisons Service a critical component in Ghana’s criminal justice system.

Mr. Missah expressed his excitement with the introduction of the CTS technology to support justice delivery.

He said the Prisons Service would collaborate with the team and other civil society organizations to improve justice services delivery in Ghana.

On her part, the Executive Director of the Legal Resource Centre, Ms Daphne Nabila Lariba, said the team would collaborate effectively with the Prisons Service and other justice sector institutions to ensure that infractions of the law on arrest and processing suspects were curtailed and utilization of paralegal services and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms were also increased.

In 2018, the Government launched the first integrated CTS in collaboration with the Judicial Service, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, Legal Aid Commission, Economic and Organized Crime Office, Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Prisons Service.

Ghana’s CTS promotes inter-agency collaboration and information-sharing through an integrated case tracking system to support the GOG in effectively investigating and prosecuting criminal cases.

The CTS is operational in seven regions, namely the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Bono, Upper East, Volta and Western regions.

The USAID Justice Sector Support activity, therefore, seeks to strengthen the utilization of the CTS by stakeholders and provide support to civil society organizations and citizens to improve advocacy on accountability of key justice sector institutions to improve justice delivery.