The Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Genevieve Partington, has expressed grave concern over the worsening state of congestion in Ghana’s prisons, describing it as a major human rights issue that requires urgent government intervention.
In an interview on Denkyiraman Radio’s National Agenda show, Ms. Partington emphasized the need for swift passage of the Community Sentencing Bill currently before Parliament. She argued that minor offences and first-time offenders should not be jailed but rather subjected to alternative punishments such as community service, which would reduce overcrowding while still holding offenders accountable.
According to the Ghana Prisons Service, the country’s correctional facilities are operating far above their holding capacity, forcing inmates to live in deplorable and inhumane conditions. Human rights advocates, including Amnesty International, have long maintained that overcrowding not only violates prisoners’ rights but also undermines rehabilitation efforts.
Ms. Partington further called on civil society organizations to collaborate with the state in establishing rehabilitation and reform centers. These facilities, she explained, would play a crucial role in reintegrating ex-convicts into society and reducing the rate of reoffending.
Her call for reform comes after the President granted amnesty to 998 prisoners earlier this year as part of government’s efforts to decongest correctional facilities and give low-risk and seriously ill inmates a second chance at life outside prison walls.
She also appealed to government to review the daily feeding grant for inmates, which currently stands at GH¢1.80 per prisoner, a figure critics say is woefully inadequate to provide nutritious meals. “We cannot talk about human dignity while inmates are fed on less than two cedis a day,” she noted, urging an immediate upward adjustment.
