Eva Ankrah, the Executive Director of the Hurds Foundation, says the Community Service Bill when passed into law, would reduce the excess number of inmates in the prisons.
She said the Bill would also ensure that offenders such as parents and caregivers sentenced would be able to carry out their punishments without being separated from their families for years as being the case under the custodial sentencing system.
The Community Service Bill, which is an alternative to custodial sentence for convicted offenders in respect of certain types of offences, would see offenders rendering unpaid public work within a community and for its benefit for a period not exceeding the term of imprisonment for which the court had sentenced them.
Madam Ankrah speaking to the media during a public education workshop on the Bill in Takoradi under the USAID Justice Sector Support Activity, said it was long overdue for the country to add on the non-custodial sentencing.
She said there were many disadvantages being faced because the only form of punishment was custodial sentencing, adding that anyone who committed an offence, a petty offence, and young offenders all went to prison.
The sensitization exercise is expected to take place within 6 communities in 6 districts in the Western Region.
Hurds Foundation, a local partner for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative under the USAID Justice Sector Support Activities. Advocating for the bill to be passed into an Act.
