Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has indicated that they will begin the decentralization of the ‘justice for all’ concept at regional levels in January 2020.
The Justice For All program, a program aimed at reducing overcrowding in the country's prisons through setting up special courts to hear remand prisoner cases will be decentralized.
The decentralization of the program will ensure cases are determined on time and save the limited resources used in running the program.
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Gloria Akuffo speaking at a Justice for all sitting on Friday, November 29, 2019, where she led a delegation of female ambassadors and High Commissioners to visit prisons said there will be full-time judges specifically assigned to work directly on cases that have to do with prison inmates which prisons officers won’t even be aware of.
She said, “one of the things that well be starting in January is the decentralization of the justice for all programme so that it becomes the responsibility of the supervising high court judge of each region and I believe every region must have justice for all programme.â€
“They go to the prison and do the cleaning up work so increasingly we will reduce or completely do away with people who have been on remand for so long, whiles we waiting for the other procedural laws that will enable different ways of even managing criminal cases,†she noted.
The CJ indicated that her office has already set up the process and it will start in January.
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“But from time to time there will be proper monitoring. Of course in the places where we have the court attached to the prisons, that’s on a daily basis and some of the existing prison courts, there will be full-time judges now assigned who will be there every day to do normal high court work but only with regard to prison inmates, even the prison officers will not have access to that,†she added.