The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, has expressed outrage at the high sentences given by the courts to culprits who engage in what he calls petty offences.
He also bemoaned the practice of classifying all prison inmates as criminals whilst those who engage in more dangerous criminal acts in their service to the country, are merely described as corrupt without any accompanying stigma.
Speaking at a courtesy call on him in Accra by Ambassador Extraordinaire of Prisons, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong urged the Ambassador not to restrict his Crime Prevention and Sensitization campaign to the consequences of imprisonment, but to take it a notch higher to include the real perpetrators of crime in the Public Service, politicians and other individuals entrusted with the responsibility of serving mother Ghana.
He described as unacceptable, the situation where majority of those in prison are the poor and the vulnerable whilst the real perpetrators of crime are those entrusted with the responsibility of seeing to the welfare of the poor, vulnerable and the underprivileged.
The NACOB boss described the vision of Mr. Kwarteng and that of his new NGO, Crime Check Foundation as laudable, and promised that NACOB is willing to partner him in their own campaign dubbed the National Stop Crime Campaign.
He urged Mr. Kwarteng, who is also a broadcast journalist, to expect challenges in his new role but also urged him to endeavour to persevere at all times in periods of challenges.
Mr. Akrasi Sarpong also congratulated the Prisons Ambassador for introducing a new Prison TV series, “Time with the Prisoner” on Ghana Television to educate the public on the dangers of crime.
He admonished him to reach out to members of the Justice Delivery Chain and use his influence as a journalist and his new Prison TV series, to make the desired impact on society to significantly reduce crime in the country.
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By Philip Nii Lartey/citifmonline.com/Ghana