With the increasing number of inmates in Ghana’s prisons, crime prevention organization Crime Check Foundation (CCF) has partnered with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) to advocate the annulment of vagrancy laws.
The project dubbed “Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws Advocacy Project” seeks to decriminalize poverty. A vagrant is a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging or hawking on the streets. Oftentimes, district assemblies pass bylaws like fines which these vagrants are unable to pay and eventually end up in prison.
In an exclusive interview with theghanareport.com, the Executive Director of CCF said the project is imperative because of the draconian district assemblies’ bylaws which appear to criminalize poverty.
Read the full article here: Scrap vagrancy laws – Advocates appeal