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| CJ Bemoans ‘Tortoise-Pace’ Of Cases In Court |
8/18/2013 |
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The Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, has expressed concern over the inadequacies in the court system and its inability to dispose of criminal cases justly, particularly “the tortoise-paced rate” at which criminal cases were disposed of. According to her, that situation, compounded by overcrowded prisons, was one of the factors crippling the criminal justice system in the country. She, therefore, called for an overhaul of the criminal justice system in order to make it more effective to address current challenges. The Chief Justice identified other challenges as the absence of comprehensive written sentencing policy guidelines as pertained in some jurisdictions and the paucity of non-custodial sentencing options. “This may call for radical reforms, the redesigning of systems, structures, policies; attitudinal and paradigm mental shifts in the way we render justice and a shared passion and commitment to collaboratively work to build a well-functioning system,” she said in Accra last Tuesday. Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the Criminal Justice Conference 2013, Mrs Justice Wood said it was worrying that in the 21st century, which had witnessed the emergence of some of the most highly sophisticated technological-based offences the world had ever known, such as cyber crime, identity theft, money laundering and terrorism financing, “we still are grappling with basic principles in criminal justice administration”.
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