-Revisiting the conditions in Ghana’s Prisons.

There are serious problems facing the twenty-seven institutions of the Ghanaian Prison System with conditions in most cases being harsh and sometimes life threatening

By a Ghana Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor USA in March 8, 2006 indicated that much of the prison population are held in buildings that were originally old colonial forts or abandoned public or military buildings, with poor ventilation and sanitation, dilapidated construction, and limited space. Overcrowding contributes to a high prevalence of communicable diseases. Medical facilities are inadequate, and the prisons are supplied only the most basic medicines. In certain facilities female prisoners in police cells are only separated by a few feet and are within the reach of male prisoners. In the Accra Central police cells, female prisoners are kept in a small vestibule, only separated from men by a gate. The law stipulates that regardless of the offense, female convicts should be tested for pregnancy upon incarceration, and that pregnant convicts should be held in a facility where their health needs could be met. To compound all these problems all these, prisoners are feed on a meager amount. At the end of 2006 a prisoner in Ghana is feed on an amount of seven thousand cedis a day. That is approximately $ .68. This is seen as upward adjustment since as of February 2001 the prisoners' daily food allowance was increased to approximately $.35 (2,500 cedis), bringing the total daily allowance to $.55 (3,900 cedis). In August 2001 the Director General asked the Government to increase the daily food allowance to at least $.57 (4,000 cedis) of which they did.

The serious issue to be determined is whether or not this amount is enough to satisfy the nutritional needs of a prisoner. Thus can $ .68 provide three square meals for the average prisoner?

Good nutrition means eating enough food and the right kind of food for the body to grow healthy and fight diseases. The cheapest foods in Ghana are mostly in the form of Carbohydrates like yam, cassava rice amongst others .None of these will cost less than four thousand cedis ($ .57) in Ghana. The inference from this is that no prisoner can be feed three times a day with these food stuffs as it will exceed his quota granted to him by the state. If the cheapest commodities cannot be obtained with this amount, then with respect to protein foods, like milk amongst others, a prisoner need not dream about it during the period of his incarceration. For this is seen as the food for the higher class.

If this is the situation at hand then the following issues must be considered without a spectacle of bias since they are prisoners.

Where is the energy to perform the hard labour?

Many at times, Judges in Ghana when convicting people sentence them to years of hard labour. Such persons are suppose to perform difficult task whiles in prison to serve as a deterrence to them so that upon coming out they would not have the sentilla idea to commit a criminal offence. Judicial notice has been taken of the basic fact that good food is needed to work hard. If the food that is given to our prisoners has little or no nutrients at all then where is the energy to work? The food being given to our prisoners is an eye sore and can best be associated to food of animals of a war torn area having no access to food. It must be noted that these individuals are prisoners and not Slaves and as such due recognition should be given to them.

Can the food cater for the health needs of women prisoners?

The biological nature of women makes them to be entitled to some different amount of treatment in terms of their nutritional needs. Some of these prisoners are pregnant mothers with some being lactating mothers. A woman in such a condition cannot rely on this amount for a healthy life. There are five important vitamins and minerals that women need especially women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. They are inclusive of iron, vitamins, calcium, iodine and Vitamins A. Is not that these nutrients are found in products that are expensive on the Ghanaian market but rather the amount provided cannot cater for these food substances. Lack of these nutrients can lead to anemia as well as beriberi.

Can it help prisoners in resisting sickness?

Furthermore eating the right food can also help in resisting sickness. The conditions’ existing in our prisons makes its inmates prone to so many diseases Most of our prisons have poor ventilation and sanitation, dilapidated construction, and limited space. According to the 2004 Prisons Service Annual Report, approximately 11,700 prisoners were held in prisons designed to hold 6,500. A newspaper in Ghana, the Chronicle, reported that on the 4th of November 2006 when the Minister of Interior visited the Winneba Prison the Officer in charge Chief Superintendent of Prison, Mr. Jacob Tagoe noted that the maximum capacity of the prison is 96, but due to the general overcrowding existing in the prison, the lock up, as at November 4th, it had 199 inmates which sometimes goes up to 250. The overcrowding has led to situations where as many as 30 inmates share a cell. In some instances, particularly in smaller cells that contain about 14 inmates, there are no beds or blankets. Overcrowding contributes to a high prevalence of communicable diseases. Without adequate nutrients the government will spend more money healing prisoners which could have been pushed to their nutritional needs. For prevention they say is better than cure.

Can it help prisoners in recovering from their sickness?

High nutritional value is also needed for an individual to recover fast from sickness. By a Ghana Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor USA in March 8, 2006 Statistics available show that HIV/Aids is the number one killer of prisoners in Ghana. It accounts for 17.5 % of all prisoner deaths in the country; about 22 of the 125 deaths last year were caused by the disease. The statistics shows that tuberculosis is another killer. It claimed 26 lives in 2002, representing 20.6 % of the total deaths. The other killer diseases in prison include anemia, 15 %; pneumonia, 13 %; septicemia, 11 %, hepatitis 6 %, and dehydration, 5 %. Others are malaria fever, 4 %; congestive cardiac failure, 4 %; meningitis, 3 %, hypertension renal failure and respiration failure, 2 % each; asthma, cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, epilepsy, haemoptisis, hernia, paralysis and cachexia each accounted for 1 % of prisoners deaths. This is exclusive of individuals who have been subjected to mob action before they were sentenced to prison. According to the prisons service report, 110 prisoners died in 2004 from diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, and anemia. This indicates that Ghana’s prisons is made up of people who are getting, if not already, in their graves and they need enough nutrients to recover

The Effect

The Prison is supposed to be a Correctional facility. In other words is a rehabilitating and reformation center. By the Prisons Service Decree NRCD 46 the Ghana Prison Service is charged with the responsibility of ensuring safe Custody, welfare, rehabilitation and reformation of prisoners. The concept of rehabilitation involves providing assistance to enable an offender to adopt a life style which is different from the old unproductive and criminal one. Thus during a period of incarceration inmates are thought new trade amongst others. However in Ghana, there is hardly any rehabilitative programme for prisoners. For this reason, there have been calls by the Chairman of the Prisons Ministry of Ghana, Mr. Sam Okudzeto, that the top priority for government expenditure should be teaching inmate’s new skills and trade so that they can regain their sense of livelihood and earn a living once they are released. With lack of nutritious food it will be very difficult for prisoners to undertake this rehabilitation fully.

The Way Forward

This bad conditions existing in our prisons is not something of which our national leaders are not aware of. Is not a situation of Columbus discovering America but rather has been there ever since the British Council of Merchants established a network of harsh prisons in forts such as Cape Coast Castle. As of 1968 the National Liberation Council (NLC) authorized a civilian commission to investigate the prison system and to make recommendations for improvements. The commission's report, issued in 1968, revealed numerous problems. Of the country's twenty-nine prisons, nine were judged unfit for human habitation, two were suitable only for police lockups, and thirteen were appropriate only for short-term detainment. However, as known of most African Governments the NLC failed to act upon the commission's recommendations

It is sometimes amazing that a country in which about 60% of its population being farmers should still complain of nutritional problems. The country has a vast majority of its land being fertile. The government should adopt the “OPERATION FEED YOURSELF PROGRAMME” concept of General Acheampong for our prisoners in order to supplement the meager amount used in catering for their welfare.

This can be feasible as by law the government can compulsorily acquire a land meant for such a purpose. The prison activities favors such a system as prisoners happen to be a group of individuals who have a systematized time schedule and there can be fixed times for going to the farms. Such produce from the farms can also be sold or exchanged for other produce that the prisoners are lacking.

Furthermore the government should put in place a Programme in which it will buy the excess produce of these prisoners and even stretched to cover ex-convicts who will engaged in farming after their sentence. For a start a quota can be given to them on this school feeding programme. This will help in raising money for these prisoners thereby cutting down the crime rate for the major cause of crime is POVERTY.

One major issue confronting every good effort is that of funding. Is a basic fact that the majority of prisoners are the youth. The Government of Ghana new agenda is to encourage the youth into Agriculture. It has also been established that the government has pushed not less than two billion cedis for the National Youth Employment Programme. Without any bias or scoring political points some of these amounts can be pushed to start such a programme.

There is also the need for the government to reconsider the amount of money it spends on a prisoner and clear the perception that providing good conditions for prisoners will make more people commit crimes due to the economic hardships in the country. Check whether anybody wants to be restricted in his freedom of choice or movement. There should be a scheme to offer aid to our prisoners through voluntary service

The rights of Prisoners in Ghana have been trivialized. This is due to the society perception that they are individuals who have been condemned. This can be traced to the traditional values of the Ghanaian society. In ages past people who committed crimes were considered to have brought calamity to the land and were sometimes severed from the rest of the community. Parents prevented their children from marrying from families who had criminal record.

The civil society should bear in mind that development has made our society to change drastically. In modern Ghana nobody can be ostracized in stricto sensu from a community. Not all inmates are guilty of the offences for some are on remand with others being victims of circumstances. It should therefore be seen as a responsibility of the societies especially families of prisoners and the churches to help in such a cause.

Argument has also been advanced by both politicians and civil society alike that the government has not finished catering for the ordinary citizens how much more prisoners. In other words till the society is well catered for the prisoners should not sniff about their problems. When the issue of human rights is brought up there is no distinction between a greater human being and a lesser one. For human beings are all equal in the sight of the law and God.

People also tend to forget that the so called lesser humans are the one who derail our efforts in life. Since nobody is born with the word “criminal” written on the forehead and the fact that the Lombroso Theory has been dismantled, it is the environmental factors that makes one a criminal, there is the need for the society to take particular attention in extricating criminals from their criminal ways.

Ghanaians need not make a choice of ignoring prisoners or creating harsh conditions for them for in either way they are now part of us and we should look at ways of reforming them.