Ghana Police needs biometric equipment – Human Rights advocate
Mr Kojo Graham, Executive Director of Centre for Human Rights and Civil Liberties (CHURCIL) on Thursday suggested that biometric registration kits be provided for the Police to enable them to have detailed information of persons discharged from prisons.
He said the current situation where the Police had to use manual processes to take fingerprints and pictures of remand prisoners was not helpful.
Mr Graham made the suggestion in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the “Justice for all Programme” at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, at Nsawam, in the Eastern Region.
The programme, which started in 2007, is aimed at ensuring that persons on remand for five years and above without trial were taken through the court process and given a fair hearing.
At the Nsawam Prison, out of the 74 remand prisoners whose cases were brought to the court for hearing, 26 of them were discharged, 30 were given bail, one case was adjourned to October 8, and 17 cases were refused because they did not qualify under the programme.
Mr Graham said the biometric registration of remand prisoners would go a long way to enable the security agencies to track the adamant ones who would like to commit crimes again.
He explained that though the current manual process was not bad, it was cumbersome; adding that, biometric registration of inmates would make things easier for the Police to follow the activities of discharged prisoners.
Mr Graham called for reforms of the country’s penal system, which should not end with the incarceration of accused persons but rather measures should be put in place to ensure proper transformation of the accused.
He said the State had a responsibility to ensure that the Department of Social Welfare put in place measures to ensure better transformation of the inmates.
Mr Graham said tax and other incentives could be given to companies willing to support government to provide skills and other benefits to prisoners discharged from prison to prevent them from re-engaging in other criminal acts.
Source: GNA