The 2008 annual report of the Ghana Prisons Service is out with stunning revelations and implications for the youth of Ghana.

The report reveals that 8,315 or 88.7 per cent of convicts admitted during the year aged between 18 and 45. By implication and emphasis, 88.7 percent of those jailed last year alone are young people -the much clichéd future leaders. If the domicile of this considerable number of young people is our prisons for offences such as stealing (which topped the list of offences), abetment of crime, murder, manslaughter, rape, defilement, fraud, conspiracy, unlawful entry, dishonestly receiving, inability to settle debt among others, then this has far-reaching implications for our nation and there is the need for urgent action to salvage the situation so it does not get out of hand.

The youthful nature of the prison population was given prominence in the report in relation to overcrowding with an emphasis on the need to expand facilities for more effective education and training of the inmates to make them productive. However, I differ. Instead, we should begin to investigate the backgrounds of the inmates. What are their levels of education? Do they posses employable skills? Were they in gainful employment? What do they do at their leisure times? Are there libraries or places in their communities where they could relax and release tension?

We must also question the quality of their legal representation. Again, we should begin to assess the level and quality of our investment in the young people and for that matter the so-called future of this nation. This calls to question the issue of a national youth policy that gives a clear direction about how the state intends to prepare its youth for the task of national development and provides a broad framework within which government agencies, developing partners, faith-based organizations, non-governmental organization, civil society organizations and youth organizations work in a coordinated manner to achieve desired results and goals set in such a policy.

Indeed, young people in Ghana constitute a considerable percentage of the population and by their nature deserve special attention. The problems confronting them are numerous and complicated and we cannot afford to proceed with ad hoc approaches to addressing these challenges. The only way out is a holistic and integrated approach where all stakeholders will play their respective roles that we can measure at the end of each year to determine the progress we are making.

Government cannot do it all but it must give a clear direction by way of policy and play an active role in monitoring and supporting what other stakeholders are doing and also measure progress. This way, I believe we can achieve better results from our investments in young people while adequately preparing them for national development thereby decongesting our already overcrowded prisons.

Prosper Hoetu

Youth Network for Human Rights & Democracy (you-net) Accra

E-mail: peeintouch@yahoo.co.uk