FORTY-FIVE convicts at the Ho Central Prison were last Tuesday transferred to the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison as part of efforts to decongest the former.
The ages of the prisoners ranged between 18 and 80.
Assistant Director of Prisons (ADP) Martin Darku, in-charge of the Volta Region told the Ghanaian Times on Friday that 40 more prisoners would be transferred to other facilities before the end of the year.
The transfers, notwithstanding, the correctional centre was still choked with an overwhelming number of convicted and remand prisoners.
As at last Friday, there were 527 inmates at the prison which has a capacity for only 150.
ADP Darku revealed that the number of new convicts arriving at the prison outstripped those leaving, adding, “Three new prisoners arrive here daily on the average while two are released daily.”
During a recent visit to the prison by the members of the Volta Ghana Bar Association (GBA), it emerged that some inmates spent the night squatting while others ‘sleep while standing’, as a result of the congestion.
In an earlier interview, ADP Darku said that the presence of more than 85 remand prisoners whose cases were dragging at the law courts was not helping matters for the prison.
Horrified by the situation at the Ho Central Prison, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the E.P. Church, Rev Dr S. S. Agidi, recently added his voice to the call on the government to take serious steps to decongest the prison as soon as practicable.
“A convicted prisoner loses his right to personal freedom and not his right to personal dignity,” he insisted.
Meanwhile, ADP Darku has welcomed plans of the Church of Pentecost to construct modern prison facilities in four regions including Volta to address overcrowding at the country’s jails.
There are now a total of 15,000 prisoners crammed in facilities originally meant for 9,000.
At the Ho Central Prison, for instance, the toilets are always overflowing compelling the convicts to inhale the stench day and night.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, HO