Ing. James B. Mwinyelle addressing the media
Ashanti Regional Commander of Prisons and Officer in charge of the Kumasi Central Prisons, Mr. James B. Mwinyelle, has bemoaned about overcrowding, inadequate nutrition and poor health of the inmates as some of the burdens facing the Prison Service.
According to him, the prisons facility, which was constructed in 1901 and expanded in 1935 to accommodate 500 inmates, now houses 1,563 inmates, and feeding this huge number of inmates, he disclosed, has become a huge burden on the authorities, who rely on a feeding grant of GH¢1.80 per inmate per day, to prepare food for them.
“The feeding of inmates is a major headache as the feeding grant is GH¢1.80 per inmate per day since around 2015. We rely on prison farms which sell to other non-farming stations, and we also rely on donations mainly from faith-based organisations,” he stated.
“As at now, we have 1,563 inmates, and this has a negative cascading effect. What we do is that we give them breakfast around 11:00am in the morning, and we give them lunch and supper together, so we serve them twice, and this is pathetic. Breakfast is basically koko (porridge), which we call it ‘Acasa’, and their lunch plus supper is banku and groundnut from the farming station basically,” he narrated.
Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) James B. Mwinyelle made these revelations during the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) annual thanksgiving and get-together ceremony on March 7, 2025.
“To give rice to the inmates at Kumasi Central Prison, I need around 16 bags of rice before I can feed them, hence rice is served once a year, especially during Christmas festivities. So I have to accumulate rice organisations and individuals donated till end of year so I can give them rice,” he added.
“The protein intake is very low – beans cum groundnuts is too expensive for me to buy owing to the paltry sum of GH¢1.80, so the main food is koko (porridge) for breakfast and just banku daily – once in a week we struggle to give them gari,” DDP Mwinyelle added.
Ing. Mwinyelle called on the state to take a second look at the state of affairs in the country’s prisons and come up with urgent measures to address them.
He suggested that the feeding grant to inmates needed urgent review to reflect on the current cost of living and the prices of food items on the market.
He stressed the need to bring the prisons closer to society since the inmates were part of the society.
“I want to invite the media to visit the place. You have the platform and my aim is that, for the period that I will be in the Ashanti Region, the prison should be brought closer to society. The prison may be a security zone, but it is not a secret place. It is being maintained by the taxpayer, and people should know what we do and how we survive. We rely a lot on donations from society,” he added.
FROM David Afum, Kumasi