A New private members’ Bill to amend the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30) to introduce an alternative sentencing regime for misdemeanors has been presented to Parliament.
The amendments are to reduce the overwhelming number of convicts efficiently serving custodial sentences.
The purpose of the bill is to introduce community service and bond of good behavior as alternatives to the traditional custodial sentences and fines for petty crimes, generally, referred to as misdemeanors, where the offense is not already specified by law.
Community service in the context of criminal justice refers to a form of alternative sentencing or punishment that involves individuals who have committed offenses performing unpaid work or service for the benefit of the community.
It is being sponsored by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, who presented the bill to the Clerk-to-Parliament.
A memorandum accompanying the bill said in Ghana’s criminal jurisprudence, offenses were categorized as capital, felonies (first-degree, second-degree, and felony simplicitor), and misdemeanors.
It said some offenses had no classifications but were categorized based on the prescribed punishment. While the Juvenile Justice Act, of 2003 (Act 653) made provisions for minor offenses, those were only about juveniles and were defined as petty theft, petty assault, and threatening offenses.
“Where a person is convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor or of an offense punishable by imprisonment other than an offense for which the sentence is fixed by law, the court may sentence that person to a fine in addition to or instead of any other punishment to which that person is liable”.
“Thus, in Ghana, misdemeanors carry the least punishment, can be noncustodial and are amenable to settlement. It can, therefore, be inferred that the description of petty offenses would apply to misdemeanors in Ghana,” the memorandum submitted by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP said.
The memorandum explained that the Act 30 was the primary legislation governing criminal procedure in the Republic. The Act, it said, specified the punishment that could be imposed on convicted persons where an offense-creating section did not indicate the same.
