Reforming the Juvenile Justice System to Protect Offenders – CDD to Gov't

General News on Thursday, April 18, 2019

Source: Starrfm.com.gh

2019-04-18

Ghana's Center for Democratic Development (CDD) calls for urgent reform of the country's juvenile justice system to protect the rights of offenders.

The appeal follows the strong concerns expressed by the Center about what it deplored to be harsh conditions for the two prison camps in the country.

In 2003, the 4th Ghana Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana pbaded the Juvenile Justice Act (Act 653) with the aim of creating an alternative criminal justice system to protect the rights of children in conflict with the law.

The law also aimed at dealing with young offenders in accordance with international standards based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice. . The correctional centers that currently exist in Ghana were created in 1947 – before the adoption of Law 653 – to "reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate" young offenders in the country through a series of moral and professional training.

In August 2018, the Penitentiary Center for the Aged (formerly known as the Borstal Institute), which is the only functional unit for the rehabilitation of male minors in the country, housed 230 boys from all regions. The girls' penitentiary – the only upper penitentiary for girls in Ghana – has nine inmates.

These penitentiary centers, which must provide young offenders with vocational training and appropriate education, are systematically confronted with reduced budget allocation, poor training facilities, obsolete equipment and other limited resources. The lack of critically needed doctors and clinical psychologists in the correctional centers is also a major concern. These partly explain the difficulties involved in reintegrating young offenders into society, as well as the difficulties and disenchantment with which young people are confronted and which often fuel recidivism.

"The CDD is very concerned that high-level correctional centers have been neglected and that the Ghana Prison Service and the Department of Social Welfare are struggling to manage these minors despite the challenges highlighted," the Center said Thursday in a statement. a statement.

Quoting Article 3 (1) of the United Nations Convention on Children, which states that "in all acts concerning children, whether they are committed by public social welfare institutions or courts, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration, "reminded the Center to governments and key stakeholders of its obligation to respect and to respect the fundamental rights of all citizens, including minors who may be in conflict with the law.

As a matter of urgency, the CDD called on the government to pay particular attention to correctional centers, which play a key role in the reform of these young offenders.

It also recommended certain actions aimed at strengthening and improving the high-level prisons in the country in order to avoid the reproduction of juvenile criminals. sufficient resources for senior penitentiary centers, the construction of senior penitentiary centers in all regional capitals to prevent juveniles from being sent to adult prisons, the provision of clinicians and clinical psychologists in post in the senior penitentiary centers.

The rest consists of: Providing the training materials, technical and professional equipment needed to develop the skills and training of these young offenders, Define a starting capital for those at risk of serving their sentences to get started independent, with the aim of: avoiding recidivism, developing a monitoring system to check recidivism and the National Commission of Civic Education conducting a public awareness campaign on the stigmatization of young offenders by society