Prisoners currently feed on 1 cedi, 80 Peswas daily - Interior Minister

Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo has hinted that, it is increasingly becoming difficult for government to feed prison inmates across the country. Prisoners, according to him, are currently being fed on 1 cedi, 80 peswas per head, mainly due to overcrowding and inadequate resources.

Mr Woyongo mentioned that, there is a holding capacity of 7,000 prisoners nationwide but currently overcrowded with 14,000 inmates. In some prisons, he lamented, there is overcrowding up to 300 percent which also makes inmates vulnerable to communicable diseases.

Speaking on pm:EXPRESS on Multi TV with Nana Ansah Kwao IV, he stressed that, if he had his way, all remand prisoners should be released after serving substantive terms without a proper trial.

The Minister called for support for the Ghana Prisons service, to enable inmates acquire requisite skills to help them reform and reintegrate into society, rather than become hardened criminals.

He maintains that prisoners are not outcasts and need to be supported, adding that most of our prisons across the country have seen no major renovations and upgrade to meet modern standards since independence.

The Ministry of Interior, according to him, has requested for twenty tractors from the Ministry of Agriculture to help augment food production by the Ghana Prisons Service.

There are currently 3,100 remand prisoners in jail, some of whom have served as long as ten years. He lauded the efforts of the Justice for all programme which is currently ongoing to free remand prisoners.

He explained that persons are kept in remand custody often because the public does not volunteer information to the Police to help build dockets for court. He however admitted that the Police are also culpable for such situation.

On the issue of non-custodial sentencing, he mentioned that the law as it is now, only leaves Judges with two options – fines or jail terms.

Representatives of our legal institutions from FIDA, the Bar Association, lecturers from University Law faculties, Attorney General's Department and judges will discuss this proposal at a forum at GIMPA soon and come out with recommendations for non custodial sentencing.

“This will make our sentencing policy fall in line with international practices”, he added, emphasising that enough details will be taken of person sentenced to community service to ensure an effective system.