Koforidua, August 17, GNA - The authorities of the Koforidua Prisons have appealed to the government to expand the outer perimeters of the prisons.

The Assistant Director of Prisons, Mr Kwame Kuma Kpeli, said the expansion had become necessary because the ventilation system in the prison was very poor thus facilitating the spread of diseases among the inmates.

He made the appeal when the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) visited the prison, on Tuesday.

Mr Kpeli also appealed to government to increase the feeding fee of inmates since the present 60 pesewas per day for each inmate was not enough to give them balanced diets.

Mr Kpeli urged the media not to publish news items which would scare the public from prisoners but rather collaborate with the prison officers to find solutions to their problems.

The Eastern Regional Director of CHRAJ, Mr Stephen Okpoti Mensah, observed that conditions prevailing in the Koforidua Prisons were not different from all the prisons the Commission had visited.

He said the prisons were overcrowded denying the inmates to good ventilation.

Mr Mensah said the prison had only one vocational institution, which was a tailoring shop, and this could only accommodate six inmates out of over 400.

He, therefore, called on government to establish more vocations within the prisons so that inmates would come out reformed after serving their terms to be of use to their families and the country.

Mr Mensah also appealed to philanthropists and other stakeholders to help paint the prison which had not been painted for many years.

The facility was established in 1946 as a military magazine depot but was abandoned after the Second World War and later converted into a prison.

It has 410 prisoners.