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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The government has finished drafting the non-custodial sentence bill and will soon present it to Parliament.
The bill, once enacted into law, would provide alternative sentences such as parole, probation, and community service in the country’s criminal justice system.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia announced this at the graduation ceremony and commissioning of the 27th Ghana Prison Service Cadet Officer Admission Course in Accra on Friday.
He said that alternatives to the custodial sentence had great potential to decongest the country’s prisons and significantly reduce the financial burden on the management of the prison system.
“The Prison Administration, in collaboration with other stakeholders, is leading the promotion of an alternative sentencing policy to be introduced in the country.
“Necessary operational adjustments are being made, including human resource capacity to take on additional responsibility,” added Dr. Bawumia.
The graduation ceremony was the culmination of the last of four batches of 1,500 new participants to the Service, drawn from diverse professional backgrounds ranging from accounting, agriculture, education, engineering, medicine and social sciences.
The Vice President commended the Service’s management for “continuing to advance its mandate to ensure that opportunities to develop the skills and talents of inmates are available to help them better reorganize their lives. The programs cover agriculture, commerce, training in different vocations and formal education for school-age offenders ”.
Dr. Bawumia expressed concern that some members of society were reluctant to accept ex-convicts back into their fold and continued to stigmatize ex-inmates, causing them to return to a criminal life.
“Therefore, I would like to appeal to the general public to see the integration of prisoners as a shared responsibility and offer the necessary support to allow these former prisoners to reintegrate properly and contribute their quota to national development. Anything other than this will render all the efforts of the Penitentiary Service unsuccessful and society will be at risk ”.
The vice president instructed the graduates to “internalize the principles of vigilance, humanity and integrity. These should be your watchwords in your relationship with fellow officers and prisoners.
“Treat inmates with care, respect and decency without compromising your professional ethics. I have no doubt that you will make it. “
He commended all the award winners, especially the Junior under Officer Amos Benang, who won the Commander’s Award, and the Senior under Officer Dr Florence Djoletoe, who was the best in academics and the Best Cadet Officer in all respects. .
