Gomoa Osamkrom Prison Officers lack toilet facilities - CHRAJ

Gomoa Osamkrom (C/R) Dec. 12, GNA - The absence of toilet facilities for prison officers at the Gomoa Osamkrom Prison Camp in the Central Region has compelled them and their dependants to use nearby forests as replacements.

The Effutu Municipal Director of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, (CHRAJ) Mr Richmond Mensah, who told the Ghana News Agency in Winneba at the weekend said after a visit to the camp and a nearby one at Awutu Beraku. He said a manhole that had been dug for the Osamkrom inmates in the yard as a public place of convenience had also created an unpleasant situation and a health hazard at the camp.

He said a visit by a team of officials from the Commission to the prisons, as part of their monitoring exercises, revealed that the sanitation and feeding conditions at the camp were very bad as compared to the nearby Awutu Camp.

Mr Mensah, therefore, appealed to corporate bodies, non-governmental organisations, the Government and philanthropists to help improve conditions at the camp to avoid an outbreak of diseases. The CHRAJ director said between January and November this year many inmates reported sick with malaria and diarrhoea, adding that, an inmate who suffered from tuberculosis had been transferred to the Ankaful Prison to receive medical attention.

The Officer Commanding the Osamkrom Camp, Superintendent Kennedy Asante Agyei, conducted the team round the camp. He said there were 76 inmates and most of them were very young. He noted that while the inmates of the Awutu Camp were served with fish, meat and Moringa leaves from their animal and crop farms, those of Osamkrom did not enjoy fish and meat.

"Again, while the officers at Osamkrom do not have toilet facilities and resort to the bush their counterpart at the Awutu Camp have water closets for their use, and even at the cells," he compared. 12 Dec. 10