We Are All A Step Away From The Prison, Since We Are All Fugitives: The Church Of Pentecost And Social Service

On July 21, 2019, the Church of Pentecost broke the ground for the construction of a new prison facility at Nsawam to decongest the existing one. Accordingly, it formed part of the efforts by the Church of Pentecost to decongest prison facilities across the country.

The Director-General of the Ghana Prison Service, Mr. Patrick Darko Missah in expressing gratitude to the church said that the church’s initiative is an answer to the age-long challenge of overcrowding in the Nsawam Medium Security Prison. The Church is equally funding the construction of a modern facility for the Ghana Prisons Service at Ejura Nkwanta in the Ashanti Region, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.

I have heard some people criticising the Church of Pentecost for the church's decision to build a prison to decongest our national prisons. As part of my research as a postgraduate student at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, l visited the Nsawam Prison - both male and female segments of the prison. That was my first encounter with inmates.

Last week, a group of uniformed prison inmates were discharged on a job duty basis to clear the bushes suffocating the Legon-Adentan stretch of road. At some point, one of the inmates got to the trotro (commercial bus) l was in to ask for some small amount of money for soap.

Given that the inmate looked 'handsome', the woman sitting next to me asked: 'what might have sent such an honourable young man to prison?' I chose the path of silence, so did not participate in her monologue. But it was the same question l asked when my research took me to Nsawam Prison in 2010.

While engaging with the inmates, l was scratching my hair and racking my brain to identify the causes of losing one's mobility right. When l went home after my interactions with the inmates, l called my siblings and told them to remain peaceful and calm regardless of how much they are provoked to circumvent the laws of Ghana.

At the prison, everyone is there. Some have suffered misjudgment. Others have suffered false accusations. And some guilty of one crime or the other. Whatever it is, l concluded that none of us is far from the prison. We are all fugitives and a step away from prison. The only difference between the prison inmate and those of us walking freely is that we have not been caught yet. Or it may be because God has no delight in giving us a prison education.

It is needless to talk about the deplorable condition in our prisons. From Michel Foucault, we get to understand the nuances of the prison. The idea of the panopticon is a reminder to all of us that there is a prying eye watching over us.

Ideally, the prison is designed to reform. A prisoner does not lose his humanity. He only loses his right to freedom of movement. He is incarcerated because he is considered a threat to civil order. Beyond that, a prison inmate retains his humanity. Like everyone else, they are entitled to basic human rights. The rights that define every human being is equally extended to prison inmates. Prison inmates do not cease to be human. It is, therefore, wrong to maltreat prison inmates. That they have infringed on the law does not mean they are incorrigible and ontologically irreformable.

Decongesting our prisons is a civil and religious responsibility towards our fellow human beings. It is one of the ways of reforming and re-socialising inmates to be fit for group living. Any condemnation of the Church of Pentecost is misplaced and a demonstration of heartlessness.

It is not enough to pay lip service to decongest our prisons. We are all just a step away from prison. As l said, everyone is a candidate for prison. We cannot be careful enough. It only takes the hand of the ultimate reality to keep us a distant away from the prison.

Well done, Church of Pentecost. Other churches can learn from the Church of Pentecost.

Satyagraha
Charles Prempeh ([email protected]), African University College of Communications, Accra