Putting gay people in prison will only make them experts – Catholic Bishops raises concern over anti-gay bill

Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi

The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi has kicked against the prison sentence in the country’s anti-gay bill, arguing that it won’t solve the problem.

Speaking to Citi News, he cautioned that putting homosexuals in prison would only make them practice more and come out as experts.

Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi proposes that if Parliament still insists on prison sentences for offenders, then it should ensure there are measures in the prisons to help such people reform.

"We think that in the case of this particular law and the way it is being implemented, being placed in prison as the punishment that they have chosen, it is not going to solve the problem. Because you see if you round up same-sex people, and you know our prisons, they are going to end up in the same room, and what is going to prevent them from going through these activities in the prison?"

“And you are not going to put them there forever because they are going to be there for three months to six months. And then they practice this and come out as more experts at it than when you sent them there. Then you release them back into society. So, what is going to happen?"

“That is why we were concerned about a punishment that will correct them, that will reform them. So, if the government is going this way or if the parliament is going this way that is why we are suggesting that in the prison there, they should add more of the corrective and reformative measures,” Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi proposed.

Ghana’s Parliament passed the anti-gay bill this week after three years in the house.

The bill is expected to be taken to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for him to assent and make it law or otherwise.