Minister suggests release of prisoners after 5 years on remand
The Minister of the Interior, Mr Mark Woyongo, has called for the release of suspects remanded in prison custody for more than five years for minor offences.
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Describing the incident as unacceptable, he said there were currently more than 3,000 inmates who had been on remand for more than five years for allegedly committing minor offences.
Quoting the axiom, “Justice delayed is justice denied”, he asked, “What if after such long years of remand such an inmate is not proven guilty? I think it is not fair."
Overcrowding
Speaking at a durbar of prison officers organised in his honour during a visit to the Ghana Prisons Service in Accra yesterday, Mr Woyongo stated that the situation was contributing to overcrowding in most of the country’s prisons.
The visit was meant for the minister to familiarise himself with the operations of the Prisons Service.
He charged his deputy, Mr James Agalga, to collaborate with other stakeholders, such as the Attorney-General’s Department, the Ghana Bar Association and paralegal institutions, to consider how best some of the laws that sought to incarcerate people who had committed minor offences could be reviewed.
He said the review should make provision for non-custodial sentences to avoid suspects being put in prison for a long period before they were tried.
“Minor offenders should rather be handed over to the assemblies to undertake communal work,” he said, adding, “Their incarceration is rather a burden on the government and taxpayers.”
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Prisoner’s feeding fee
Mr Woyongo was of the view that keeping minor and first-time offenders rather hardened them, instead of reforming them,since they got to learn new tricks in the prisons and became a threat to society on their release.
Apart from the insanitary conditions in the country’s prisons, he said, the feeding fee of GHc1.8 per day for each prisoner was woefully inadequate.
Recounting some of the plight of prisoners revealed during his visit to the Navrongo Central Prison in the Upper East Region, the minister said some prisoners in the country had not eaten meat or sugar for over a year.
He said the Prisons Service would be supported with vehicles to enable it to convey prisons to the courts and urged the service to consider public/private partnerships to expand its operations.
Refurbishment of prisons
For her part, the Controller-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Ms Matilda Baffour-Awuah, said efforts were underway to rehabilitate some of the prisons, including the refurbishing of the Nsawam Prison Infirmary into a state-of-the-art clinic.
She said the service was working with some private partners to address some of its challenges.
Ms Baffour-Awuah said some Development partners, particularly the British High Commission, had been supporting the service to enhance its operations.
Silos used for prisons
The Deputy Controller in charge of Finance and Administration of the service, Mr Patrick Darko Missah, said currently there were 14,585 inmates spread across the country’s prisons.
Out of the number, he said, 11,581 had been convicted, while 3,004 were on remand.
He confirmed that some of the prisons, apart from their poor ventilation, were overstretched beyond their capacity, leading to overcrowding and congestion.
Citing the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, he said although it was meant for 717 inmates, it now housed 3,747, representing an increase of 340 per cent.
Mr Missah said apart from the Nsawam, Ankaful and Kete Krachi prisons, all the others were warehouses, stores and silos meant to house goods which had been converted into the housing of inmates.
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He said the Ghana Prisons Service currently had a staff strength of 5,673 but its operations were being hampered due to the lack of residential accommodation, safety gadgets and other logistics.
Writer’s email: emelia.ennin@graphic.com.gh