This figure represents 18.72 per cent of the 4,435 remand prisoners who appeared before the court sittings which were held in the Akuse Male Prison, Sekondi Central Prison and the Koforidua Local Prisons.

Statistics

According to statistics by the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS), 1,571 prisoners were granted bail while 171 of them were convicted.

With the remaining 1,863 cases, many were dismissed while a few others were also referred to the psychiatric hospital.

The Justice for All Programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, introduced in Ghana in 2007 to help promote access to justice and for speedy trial of cases of remand prisoners.

Situation in Ghana

Remand prisoners are inmates whose cases have not been determined by the law court. They have not been convicted and are therefore awaiting the courts to determine their fate by either acquittal or imprisonment.

In Ghana, however, most of these prisoners are delayed justice which results in they spending many years in prisons without trial.

Situation in Ghana

Remand prisoners are inmates whose cases have not been determined by the law court. They have not been convicted and are therefore awaiting the courts to determine their fate by either acquittal or imprisonment.

In Ghana, however, most of these prisoners are delayed justice which results in they spending many years in prisons without trial.

According to the criminal records section of the GPS, as of May 2011, the remand prisoner population in the country’s prison stood at 4,565, amounting to about 30 per cent of the total prison population of 14,552.

The situation does not only cause congestion in the various prisons but also overburdens the GPS which is essentially designed to meet the needs of the sentenced rather than the remand prisoners.

Positive Impact

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Chief Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ghana Prisons Service, Chief Supt Courage Atsem, said the initiative had had a positive impact on the operations of the service, particularly with regard to issues of congestion and the challenges which came with transporting inmates from the prisons to the court.

Additionally, he said, it had also helped relieve the service of the challenges it went through to cater for such prisoners since no extra budget was provided for their care.

“This programme seeks justice to give whom justice has been denied. We know justice delayed is justice denied and for someone to be on remand for a long period of time without trial is unacceptable and doesn’t speak well of the country’s justice,”

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For such reasons, the PRO said the introduction of such an initiative was a great move and would help address the weaknesses in the country’s justice system.

He, however, said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme was halted last year to prevent any external contact with the inmates.

Chief Supt Atsem further expressed the hope that with the current COVID-19 situation in the country, the initiative would soon take off.

The President has also promoted six Deputy Directors of Prisons (DDP) to Directors of Prisons (DOP).

They include Francis Omane-Addo, DOP In-Charge of Welfare; Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, DOP In-Charge of Services and Technical; Samuel Adjei-Attah, DOP In-Charge of Health and Samuel Akampure Akolbire DOP In-Charge of Operations.

The others are Hanson Adu-Awuku, DOP In-Charge of Agriculture and Ernest Asante-Adofo, DOP In-Charge of Human Resource Development.

In a statement issued by the Service on Wednesday, it said Isaac Kofi Egyir, who used to be the Director of Prisons (DOP) in Charge of Operations, is now the Deputy-Director-General of Prisons (DDGP) In-Charge of Operations.

Also, five Assistant Directors of Prisons (ADP) have also been promoted to Deputy Directors of Prisons (DDP).

They are Edmond Boye Odonkor, Raphael K. Tuekpe, Ali Kwaku Ababio, Martin Kweku Darku and Simon Yao Adzah.

The promotion, according to the statement, was done upon recommendation of the Prisons Service Council.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,842 junior officers have also been promoted to various higher ranks within the junior officer corps.

Below is the full statement:

The exercise, which was carried out on Thursday, January 28, 2021, was to help deal with Covid-19 tendencies at the state facility.

The Coordinator for the Free Zoomlion Community Disinfection, Mrs Lola Asiseh Ashitey, speaking to journalists, disclosed that her outfit has voted GH¢2 million for the one week operation.

Last Thursday’s exercise saw Zoomlion disinfection crew with hand-held spraying machines disinfect offices and surfaces of the Prisons Service headquarters.

Also disinfected were the Prisons Nursery School, Prisons Service Church, snack spot and the entire environment of the institution.

“The essence of this Free Community Disinfection exercise is to support vulnerable communities and institutions in the fight against Covid-19,” she said.

Mrs Asiseh Ashitey assured that Zoomlion will not relent in its support to help the government stop the spread of the virus.

The company has partnered some media houses to ensure that as many homes and vulnerable institutions benefit from its free disinfection operation across the country as possible.

For his part, the Assistant Director of Ghana Prisons Service, Paddy Tei, commended Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the government for their continuous effort to combat the Covid-19 in the Prisons Service.

He stressed that all the Covid-19 protocols were being observed in and out of the prison cells to make sure wardens, inmates and visitors are safe from the virus.

“We also want to ensure that we do not record any Covid case in our prisons,” he said.

It would be recalled that Zoomlion on Saturday, January 23, launched a one-week (January 23 – January 30, 2021) Free Community Disinfection operation to cover orphanages, households, churches, mosques and corporate institutions among others.

According to the company, this was part of its continuous efforts to help the government curb the spread of the pandemic.

The Central Regional Public Relations Officer of the Service, Superintendent Vincent Ziniel, made the appeal saying that the increment would ensure adequate and nutritious meals for inmates at all times.

“Though we appreciate the effort of the government, we are still asking for more in order to cater for the basic needs of inmates.

“The current feeding grant of GH₵ 1.80 per inmate is woefully inadequate and we are pleading with the government to review the rate,” he said.

He was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast on Tuesday.

Notwithstanding, Supt. Ziniel appreciated the efforts by the government to reform the Service to deliver its mandate of providing safe custody of prisoners and to ensure their welfare, reformation and rehabilitation.

Currently, the Central Region has more than 2,000 male inmates in seven prisons at Kasoa (Awutu Prison), Osamkrom, Winneba and four clusters at Ankaful, namely the Maximum Prisons, Annex Main Camp and Communicable Disease Prisons.

Furthermore, Sup. Ziniel urged the government to resource the various prison infirmaries with the right quantities of pharmaceuticals, logistics and personnel to provide medical care for both inmates and officers of the Service.

Citing challenges at the Ankaful Maximum Prison to buttress his appeal, Sup. Ziniel said the facility lacked drugs to support its infirmary services, mattresses, logistics and infrastructure to deliver on its mandate.

“Currently, we have some drugs but they are not enough to cater for inmates here. Our mattresses, food, logistics and infrastructure are woefully inadequate to support our inmates’ services,” he added.

In the absence of these essential items, Sup. Ziniel assured that the Deputy Director of Prisons, Dominic Nicholas Arthur, the Central Regional Commander and team were determined to go all out to ensure the health and welfare of inmates across the Region were improved.

“The Regional Commander has been buying drugs for inmates when the infirmary run out of stock. Other times, we take sick inmates to designated hospitals and look for money by ourselves to pay for their bills because we can’t watch sick inmates die.

“We have also been getting support from religious organizations, corporate entities, individuals and families of inmates,” he said and pleaded with all to support the Service..

Sup. Ziniel reiterated the Command’s commitment to ensure that the Service purges itself of all miscreant officers who connive and condone with criminals to dent the reputation of the Service.

He announced that the Service in the year 2020 succeeded in arresting more than 10 officers and some civilians.

Some of the officers, he said, were interdicted and together with the civilians were processed for court for various offences, to serve as a deterrent to others.

The Ghana Prisons Service has rubbished claims by the minority in parliament that the service is secretly recruiting some personnel into the service without recourse to laid-down procedures.

According to the Public Relations Officer of the Service, Superintendent Courage Atsem, although the service is working on a badge of recruits, the current trainees are from an earlier training programme.

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“We are not doing any secret exercise. The Ghana Prison Service is a public institution, therefore, will not engage in any secret recruitment. Yes, we are training some personnel but that was from an earlier programme,” he told Accra-based Neat FM monitored by Adomonline.com.

The minority in parliament has accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of “secretly” recruiting party activists into the security agencies.

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A statement signed by James Agalga, MP for Builsa North and Ranking Member, Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament alleged the secret recruitment exercise is happening in the Police, Prisons and Immigration Services.

“We also call upon President Akufo-Addo to institute measures to root out, cronyism and nepotism with respect to recruitment into the security agencies.”

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Superintendent Courage Atsem posited that all recruitment is public and are advertised where the late one was advertised last year and the procedure started last year.

“We have placed about three batches already. This is about the fourth batch we are working on. So it’s not a secret exercise. The recruitment is being done by the Ghana Prisons Service. Besides, the Prisons Administration is working on it. Some people who may see people going through and may not have heard earlier,” he explained.

Listen to audio above

Source: Adomonline.com | Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy

In a short consecration and handing over ceremony at the Prisons Headquarters at Cantonments in Accra, the Acting Director-General of Prisons (DGP) Mr. Patrick Darko Missah, handed over the keys of the equipment to the Officer in Charge of the Duayaw Nkwanta Settlement Camp Prison, Assistant Director of Prisons (ADP) John Asiedu Benaye to mark the beginning of the realization of the vision of modernizing Prisons agriculture.

The Director of Prisons in charge of Operations and Agriculture, Mr. Sylvester KB Rabbles, in a short speech thanked the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Interior for facilitating the procurement of the machinery and said, ‘the equipment procured will go a long way to enable the Service contribute its quota to the government’s initiative of Planting for Food and Jobs’, as well as improve upon inmates’ ration and to generate income’.

He however called for more support from the Agricultural Ministry in terms of farm inputs and other machinery to intensify the revamping exercise nationwide.

The exercise is meant to infuse machinery, improved seeds, fertilizers and to expand storage facilities among others to enhance the net value of Prisons agriculture from the current GHȻ2.2 million to about GHȻ6.6 million in the next five years.

It is expected to help reduce government’s expenditure on prisoners’ feeding which runs in excess of GHȻ10 million annually and also support the Prisons’ rehabilitation programme by getting more prisoners trained in modern agricultural activities to enhance their earning scheme as well as make them employable after release from prison.

Ghana Prisons Service has nineteen (19) farm stations across the country. They engage in the cultivation of cereals, vegetables, oil palm, teak, acasia, cocoa, coffee, mango, citrus, and cowpea. They also engage in the rearing of livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, grass cutters, poultry, and rabbits.

Prisons agriculture started when prisoner population grew beyond acceptable levels and there was the need to feed inmates in the face of inadequate budgetary allocation. This brought about the setting up of farm camps, and between the periods of 1992 and 1994 an Agricultural Revolving Fund was introduced with seed money of GHȻ19, 200. 00 to produce food to feed inmates. This fund has grown to a current figure of GHȻ2.2 million.

Therefore, the public is advised to disregard rumours making the rounds in that direction, and avoid being lured into buying fake Prisons recruitment forms.

The public is also entreated to report individuals who would claim to be recruiting persons on behalf of the Service to the nearest Police Station or Prisons establishment, or call these phone numbers: 0299320000, 0299320637, 0299320976, and 0299320686.

The Prisons Administration however wishes to state that, whenever there is the need for any recruitment exercise, same will be advertised in the media including its website, www.ghanaprisons.gov.gh, for the information of the general public.

SIGNED:

SUPT. VITALIS AIYEH

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

FOR: DIR. GEN. OF PRISONS