By Enock Akonnor enockakonnor2013@gmail.com
+233541921562
POS Foundation; a human rights civil society organization has put up a fully equipped paralegal office for the Kumasi Central Prison with funding support from GIZ.
It was commissioned on Friday 26th April, 2024 through partnership with the Ghana Prisons Service and the Legal Aid Commission for an efficient paralegal operations within the prison.
The facility will be utilized by 20 prison officers and 11 inmates who were trained to serve as paralegals under the In-prison Paralegal Program (IPP).
IPP seeks to compliment the Justice For All Program (JFAP) in efforts to reduce prison overcrowding by training convict inmates and prison officers as paralegals.
The latter (paralegals) will help convict prisoners who might have received a miscarriage of justice or excessive sentence to appeal their case on self- representation under Article 19 (2) (f) due to lack of financial capacity to hire the service of a lawyer.
Ashanti region’s newly commissioned office adds up to that of Nsawam, making it 2 in totality, nationwide.
Present at the commissioning were Justice Dennis Adjei- Judge of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights, Edmund Foley- Executive Director for Legal Aid Commission among other renowned justice sector actors.
Jonathan Osei Owusu- Executive Director for POS Foundation informed the press after the commissioning on how the IPP has been helpful in justice delivery since its implementation.
He recalled how Ama Forson, a 69-year old woman who was convicted on narcotic charges to 11 years was acquitted and discharged through the IPP after spending 4 years and 7 months in prison.
This he explained came into fruition after an appeal was done through the program.
This among many successes were chalked at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison including two offices which have been renovated and fully furnished to serve as a paralegal office for trained in-prison paralegal under the IPP.
Multi-stakeholder Workshop For Justice Sector Actors
On the same day, a multi-stakeholder workshop for justice sector actors on access to legal aid (in-prison paralegal programme) was held.
It brought together selected actors in Kumasi to collectively discuss and brainstorm on their various institutional roles towards access to legal aid, identity challenges and propose prospects towards the promotion of justice delivery for prison inmates.
ABOUT POS Foundation
It is focused on activities in the areas of Human Rights Advocacy and Development, Law/Policy Reforms, Youth Development and Social Accountability.
With a track record of successful projects, the organisation has strategically positioned itself as one of the leading Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Ghana in the area of Justice reforms and access to justice, advocacy for the right to information, convener for the civil society platform on the UN Universal Periodic Review in Ghana, Drug Policy reforms and currently serves as the secretariat for the Ghana Human Rights NGOs Forum.
Source; www.leakyghana.com
