THE CONGESTION problems at the male section of the
Kumasi Central Prisons has deepened over the last couple of years, it has been disclosed.
The penitentiary has the capacity to accommodate maximum of 700 inmates but sadly the number of prisoners in the facility now is close to 2,000.
This unpleasant figure therefore means that an excess of about 1,300 inmates are currently serving their sentences in the old-looking penitentiary, located at Adum.
The congestion woes in the prison is said to be having adverse effects on the health of the inmates, who usually are inflicted with skin diseases and other problems.
Robert T. Tetteh, Senior Chief Officer of the Kumasi Prisons said the number of inmates would have hit 3,000 by now but for a transfer exercise they carried out recently.
“On the average, we receive 30 inmates on a daily basis and the number of inmates was getting to 3,000, which was too much, so we decided to transfer some of them.”
The prisons officer said transferring some prisoners to other prisons, helped to decongest the Kumasi prisons, but he stated that more was needed to be done at the prison.
According to him, the excess numbers in the Kumasi Prisons was impacting negatively in the management of the place so he called for more decongestion exercise.
Mr. Tetteh mentioned attempts to smuggle narcotic drugs to inmates by some people, as one of the challenges facing the prisons, saying “we always arrest such people”.
According to him, it is the firm policy of the prisons that all food items that are sent to inmates are thoroughly searched so that any illegal item could be detected.
The journalists were in the prisons as part of a seminar organised for them by African Heights Foundation. The event was funded by Open Society for West Africa (OSIWA).
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi