The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has expressed concern over what he describes as the widespread abuse of remand procedures by both the police and the courts.
According to him, some courts impose excessively harsh bail conditions that many accused persons are unable to meet, resulting in unnecessary remand and worsening congestion in prisons and police cells.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, May 28, Mr Muntaka said the proposed Community Service Bill, together with ongoing constitutional amendments, would help address the situation and reduce the overreliance on remand.
“I’ve been working with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine, on the constitutional amendment that is currently ongoing, that we should make remand very restrictive because currently it is massively abused,” he stated.
“With the least provocation, they say they’ve remanded somebody. You go to the police, and they remand people anyhow,” he added.
Mr Muntaka further criticised the nature of some bail conditions imposed by the courts, arguing that they are often beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.
“Sometimes they give terrible bail conditions that people are not able to meet. We want to take the opportunity in this constitutional amendment to restrict this unnecessary remand,” he said.
He expressed confidence that reforms such as the Community Service Bill and the proposed constitutional changes would significantly help decongest prisons and improve conditions within the criminal justice system.
“I’m sure that if we’re able to get these three things working together, it is going to help us to decongest our prisons and also ourselves and make life a little better,” he noted.
The Interior Minister also disclosed that government currently spends about GH¢40 million annually on feeding prison inmates, describing the amount as grossly inadequate in meeting the needs of the prison population.
