Prisons to be decongested

The Ministry of the Interior is to establish camp prisons at Damongo, Akaa, Yeji and Forifori to cater for minor offenders as a measure towards decongesting the Nsawam Medium Security Prison and others throughout the country.

The Ministry is also in consultation with the Attorney - General's Department for the appropriate legislation to be drafted for the introduction of non-custodial sentences such as parole, probation, suspended sentences and community service.

Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of the Interior, said this on Wednesday when he appeared before Parliament to answer a number of questions asked by members of the House.

Mr Seth Dankwa Wiafe, NPP- Akwapim South, asked the Minister what steps the Ministry was taking to decongest the Medium Security Prisons at Nsawam where some accused persons have been on remand for many years without trial.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the Nsawam Prison with a capacity for 717 prisoners had at present locked up 2,360 inmates and this confirmed that the prison was overcrowded.

"Almost all our prisons have various levels of overcrowding, some as high as over 300 per cent and there was evidence that there was over crowding in almost all the country's prisons".

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the Ministry was to collaborate with the Judicial Service, the Ghana Bar Association, Attorney General's Department, Police Service and all principal players in the Criminal Justice System to review the country's sentencing policy.

This is to ensure that the courts dispensed with misdemeanours outright by the institution of fines and give bails and limit remands.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said it was hoped that through this arrangement, it would be possible to speed up the trial of offenders and reduce the time they had to spend as remand prisoners.

The Minister explained that there had been a rise in the number of persons committed to the country's prisons due to the increasing crime wave.

He said because of the state of some of the prisons and the need to convert them to their original purposes, there had been a decrease in the number of prisons with the closure of the Ussher Fort, Anomabo, Keta and the Cape Coast Castle Prisons.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said there had also been an increase in the number of remand prisoners. At present there are 482 remand prisoners at the Nsawam Prisons and some of them have been there for a long time.

Mr Kwakye Addo, NDC - Afram Plains South asked the Minister how many children and pregnant women were in the Nsawam Prison and the Minister said at present there were three children and two pregnant women.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the Ministry intended to construct a nursing mother's wing outside the prison's ward to cater for such children, who were either delivered in the prisons or brought in by convicted women.

Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, NPP- Navrongo Central, asked what measures were in place to sensitise and improve sanitation in the prisons and the Minister said water closets and toilet facilities were to be provided since the prisons were in very bad and deplorable conditions and needed to be decongested.