As shocking as it sounds, the majority of Ghana’s police stations have zero internet connectivity. When Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia (DMB) argued his preference for the Ghana card (digitalization) over a thousand interchanges, he knew the streams of benefits flowing from digitalization and, by extension, as brilliantly put by him, the fourth industrial revolution. With that being said, digitalization benefits and advances both civil and criminal procedures. This article addresses some issues endemic in our criminal justice system and how digitalization stands to benefit it.
It’s unjustifiable that our prosecution system appeals to situations where a police officer or investigator in charge of a particular case would put a case assigned to them to investigate in their pocket and walk around with it. Consequently, cases cannot progress without the physical involvement of that particular investigator. Even in the lawyer’s world, after interviewing a client before a retainer, one is enjoined to communicate an alternative contact in the firm to a client who obviously will be familiar with a particular case and can equally progress the same in the absence of the first instance lawyer.
It is startling to learn that suspects, frustrated by such crude practice at the Ghana police station but yet seeking information about the progress of their case, are bluntly told to wait until such a time when an absent investigator resumes their duty. Such a system does not only breed corruption but also exposes a suspect to potential exploitation and ultimately defeats the overriding objective of the criminal procedure rules—i.e., to deal with cases justly. Will digitalization be a significant solution to address this canker? Of course, it will! Imagine a situation where all cases reported at the Ghana police station are recorded in a centralized, digitized system with every significantly related event being updated on the same. Any other investigator in a respective station who is not in a conflict of interest should be familiar with such a case and progress the same.
Increasingly, suspects arrested and charged by the Ghana police, irrespective of their offence being a summary, either-way, or indictable, are denied bail or have struggled to meet their bail conditions. Unlike Ghana, a suspect convicted safely by a magistrate or crown court may either be sentenced immediately or be entitled, depending on the offence category, to bail prior to their being sentenced. What happens in the majority of cases is a pre-sentence report supplied by a probation service. These reports, gleaned from digitalized data, tell a story about a suspect’s good behaviour or bad behaviour—previous convictions that assist a defence lawyer in plea mitigation, assist the judge, or arm the prosecution. In Ghana, we do not have a probation service, but one is cautiously optimistic about us having a paper record of a suspect’s previous convictions. However, a digitalized system that keeps records of people would be a significant impetus to our criminal justice system. The starting point is digitalization.
The community sentence, itself an alternative to custodial sentences, being a measure that could further our interest in easing our prisons, cannot be stressed enough. Essentially, punishment must aim not only at reducing the commitment of the offence but also at reforming and rehabilitating the individual. With the record number of summary and some either-way offences, which largely result in custodial sentences, it is thought that such an alternative, which can be punitive enough, must be embraced by our judicial system as an alternative to custody. However, there must be a system that monitors or supervises the actual performance of the prescribed act by the convicted person. For instance, if a court orders a convicted person to serve unpaid work in a community for 12 months, digitalization will be crucial to the implementation and monitoring of such an alternative.
In some advanced countries, records of sexual offenders are kept in a digitalized register. Such records are easily accessible to most employers. Consequently, sexual offenders are denied employment in areas (such as schools, health care, trustees, and child education) where their mere presence is likely to cause harm (psychologically or physically) to vulnerable people. For instance, if we had such a digitalized sex offenders register and it was backed by law, we wouldn’t be confronting very difficult situations like the “Sex for Grades”—where a lecturer at the University of Ghana culpable in such a sting operation continues to remain in such an important profession and in close proximity with vulnerable and helpless students. Isn’t it shameful and baffling?
Seen in this light, the ordinary Ghanaian voter easily appreciates the dividing line between a mediocre (and incompetent) John Mahama (who views the presidency as an end in itself and has failed to propose serious solutions besides nkok) nkitin kitin) and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is a cutting-edge politician, or even as President Kufour puts it perfectly—custom-made. It underscores the fact that Dr. Bawumia makes a difference! Indeed, he does.
By Shareef Sule
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