A total of 1,300 prisoners throughout the country will be granted amnesty on March 6, this year. The Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Mr William K. Asiedu, who disclosed this said consequently, the Attorney-General in consultation with the Prisons Service Council is feverishly working to authenticate a list of prisoners who are supposed to benefit from the amnesty as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Mr Asiedu announced this at the inauguration of a library complex for condemned prisoners of the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons. He said the establishment of the library marked the beginning of the expansion of educational facilities for the benefit of inmates and that the Prisons Service Council mandated him to institute functional literacy programme for the prisons.Mr Asiedu said he would ensure that the learning centres of the prisons were equipped to become first-class computer education centres for prisoners.

He, however, expressed regret at the continued neglect of Ghana’s prisons by successive governments and questioned why the governments had failed to bring reforms to the prisons as it had done in other institutions. "After 50 years of independence it is sad to observe the despicable conditions and the state of Ghana’s prisons. Previous governments totally abdicated their responsibilities in reforming the prisons," he said.

He, therefore, called on religious bodies and non-governmental organisations among other institutions, to rally to the help of prisoners by helping them to reintegrate into society when they were released after serving their various jail terms. The library, which was initiated by the New Life Christian Love Fellowship, a religious grouping made up of inmates of the condemned prisons and other members of the society, has Ms Ama Lokko, a businesswoman, as its president.

She explained that the decision to initiate the library complex for the condemned prisoners was motivated by her passion for reading and what she discovered during her visits to the prisoners. She advised the inmates to develop the culture of reading, since, according to her, "reading has the power to change lives", adding that their ability to transform depended on knowledge. It was observed during the visit that the cells were too small to contain the 2,731 prisoners, compelling some of the prisoners to sleep in turns while others slept in the yard apparently because of their inability to find space in their respective cells.

Some officials of the prisons told journalists that the large number of prisoners resulted in the infrastructure being over-utilised, causing it to deteriorate fast.