Access to justice and inmates at Kumasi central prison
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Date
2021-06-14
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Abstract
The study explores how inmates at the Kumasi Central Prison access justice. Purposely,
the study seeks to outline the reasons for delay in access to justice for the inmates at the
Kumasi prison. To examine the extent to which inmates access justice whiles at the Prison,
and identify the various challenges they faced at the prisons. We collect data from a survey
administered to 230 respondents from key technical persons and some selected inmates at
the Kumasi Central Prisons. The study found out that factors such as few judges and
magistrates available to adjudicate the massive backlogs of court cases, and lack of
transparency of court document processing and publication of court decisions are the
reasons for the delays. The study further found out that majority of the inmates were denied
access to legal advice and service, and some of the inmates also expressed total ignorance
so far as access to justice. We therefore, conclude that access to justice or legal
representation is very difficult in the prison, and that many accused persons go through
trial without being represented by a legal practitioner. The researcher therefore
recommends a Legal Aid Policy that shall promote speedy access to justice, reformative
programmes such as skills training for prisoners, a social protection and support
programmes that could help for effective reintegration of remand prisoners into society,
and the establishment of a remand home to avoid the mingling of remand prisoners with
convicted prisoners.
Description
A thesis presented to the Faculty of Law,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,kumasi
in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Award
of Master of Laws (llm).
Keywords
Access to justice, Kumasi central prison