Correctional centre admits more juvenile offenders
Jasmine Arku
AN average of 120 juveniles, aged between 12 and 18, are admitted to the Senior Correctional Centre of the Ghana Prisons Service every month.
While some of the juveniles are admitted for various crimes, ranging from stealing to narcotics, others are sent there by their parents or guardians for exhibiting various forms of deviant behaviour at home.
In 2009, 1,457 juveniles were admitted, as against 1,410 in 2008.
The Chief Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, ASP Courage Atsem, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the increase in child delinquency needed to be a source of worry to the country.
He attributed the problem generally to lack of parental care and control, noting that juveniles who fell foul of the law were eligible to stand trial under the laws of the country.
Such juveniles, he said, were tried at the juvenile courts and, if found guilty, made to serve a minimum sentence of six months and a maximum of two years.
ASP Atsem said while juveniles served their sentences, they were made to undergo character reformation and skills training programmes in order to prevent them from repeating their mistakes.
The good news, however, was that juveniles who were discharged were not regarded as ex-convicts, since they were not prisoners and had no criminal records, he said.
Therefore, they were capable of being employed to work lawfully under any organisation.
The Assistant Superintendent of Police at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), ASP Freeman Tettey, in a separate interview, called on parents to give more attention to their children.
He said it was the collective responsibility of all to monitor and be critical of their children’s activities, adding, “Parents and guardians should be mindful of the friends their children and wards associate with.”
AN average of 120 juveniles, aged between 12 and 18, are admitted to the Senior Correctional Centre of the Ghana Prisons Service every month.
While some of the juveniles are admitted for various crimes, ranging from stealing to narcotics, others are sent there by their parents or guardians for exhibiting various forms of deviant behaviour at home.
In 2009, 1,457 juveniles were admitted, as against 1,410 in 2008.
The Chief Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, ASP Courage Atsem, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the increase in child delinquency needed to be a source of worry to the country.
He attributed the problem generally to lack of parental care and control, noting that juveniles who fell foul of the law were eligible to stand trial under the laws of the country.
Such juveniles, he said, were tried at the juvenile courts and, if found guilty, made to serve a minimum sentence of six months and a maximum of two years.
ASP Atsem said while juveniles served their sentences, they were made to undergo character reformation and skills training programmes in order to prevent them from repeating their mistakes.
The good news, however, was that juveniles who were discharged were not regarded as ex-convicts, since they were not prisoners and had no criminal records, he said.
Therefore, they were capable of being employed to work lawfully under any organisation.
The Assistant Superintendent of Police at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), ASP Freeman Tettey, in a separate interview, called on parents to give more attention to their children.
He said it was the collective responsibility of all to monitor and be critical of their children’s activities, adding, “Parents and guardians should be mindful of the friends their children and wards associate with.”
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