Mass exodus from Prisons Service

Accra, June 14, GNA - The Ghana Prisons Service said on Wednesday that it was worried over the massive exodus of its personnel, particularly those with professional backgrounds, due to myriad of problems that had bedevilled the Service over the years.

The Prisons Service, which currently has an overall staff strength of 4,162, is said to be operating at a third of its staff strength. Mr William K. Asiedu, Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, told the Minister of the Interior, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah that the Service was without a condition of service, which had led to the increasing spate of resignation and desertions.

"We do not have one and officers are insecure. It is difficult to plan, as there are no guidelines. Officers could have worked harder but looking into the future, which offers no hope leads to despondency," Mr Asiedu said.

According to him, a cream of personnel, particularly those with specialty in Law, Clinical Psychology, Sociology, Social Work and allied fields had left the Service for other institutions where they could find better working conditions.

On the state of facilities, Mr Asiedu said all the prisons needed major rehabilitation and modernization because the conditions were not conducive for reformation.

He said officers' barracks were in terrible shape and in cases where personnel lived in rented apartments they faced threats of ejection due to inability to continue to pay rent charges. The Director-General said there was over 60 per cent overcrowding in the prisons with remand population alone constituting 29 per cent of the capacity.

Out of the total number of 12,905 prisoners in the country as of June 14, 2006, convicted persons constituted 8,677 with 3,339 as remand prisoners.

"The Service is not justified in keeping those on remand for long periods. As a result we have instituted a body to look at the James Fort and Nsawam Prisons to come out with a report on the remand prisoners in order to deal with the issue," he said.

There are 314 trial prisoners; 231 serving life imprisonment; 149 condemned prisoners; 69 juveniles and 16 debtors. Mr Kan-Dapaah, who was meeting the Service for first time after his appointment, challenged the Leadership of the Ghana Prisons Service to come up with a proper restructuring plan that would improve the conditions.

Besides, he charged them to develop a proper business plan that would enable the Service to generate its own internal resources to augment Government's budgetary allocation.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said: "The resources are limited, and those who get them are those, who are able to prove that they need not to be left out. So come out with a well-prepared document to justify you budgetary needs."

He said there was the need for the Service to come out with a document that would spell out the conditions of service for personnel even if it would require the services a consultant. The Minister urged the personnel to uphold a high sense of discipline and be loyal to the Government and the State at large.