15 December 2008
editorial
The public Agenda newspaper reported last week Friday that a magistrate Court at Akim Oda, in the Birim Central Municipality had sentenced a 72 year old farmer, Kwadwo Nkansah to six months imprisonment with hard labour, for stealing a bunch of plantain from one Albert Akwasi Amoako's farm at Akim Swedru. According to the story, the accused pleaded guilty to the charge and was accordingly sentenced by the court.
Though the judge based his judgement on the relevant laws of the land, The Chronicle thinks the judgment handed down to the 72 year old man was very harsh. The story did not state whether the accused was a first or second time offender of the same crime, but no matter the situation, we at The Chronicle think a caution and subsequent discharge would have been enough, instead of being thrown into jail at a ripe age of 72, after being charged with such a minor offence.
Ghana as a developing country is always struggling to raise money to tackle numerous development projects. As a result of this challenge, feeding grants to inmates at our various prisons is nothing good to write home about. Our prisons authorities have consistently been complaining about this but no concentrate solution has been found to the problem.
The Chronicle therefore finds it a little bit surprise that our courts are still packing our already congested prisons with inmates who could have been cautioned and discharged, or bonded, or better still be made to render community service. We do not have the legal mind but we think the judge who handled the case under review could have used his or her discretionary powers to caution the accused or bonded him, but this never happened.
Clearly, the way our prisons are being packed and the dehumanising conditions the inmates live in should be a concern to everyone, and that is why we want to use this medium to appeal to the Presidency, Chief Justice (CJ) and parliament to take a firm decision on the matter and make sure that minor cases like stealing of cassava and plantain do not attract prison sentences, but offenders may be made to render community service.
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