Ghana Prisons; An asset or a liability?

If you have ever used a phone with an annoying ring tone, then you would have known by now that, the most prudent thing to do under such circumstances is to usually alter the settings to vibration mode or in worst cases, put it on silence, which relieves us and everybody on our timeline, the cacophony of an aching siren which is mistaken as a tone. But do we loathe ourselves should the phone be misplaced afterwards?

The first thing we do when we misplace our phone is to reach out for an alternative phone to call the missing one, just so we can be directed to where the ringing is emanating from, and should your ring tone be set to ‘off’ or to its lowest decibels at the time of missing, then your guess is as good as mine and it is this line of thought where we take actions without recourse to what can happen in the future is what has motivated me to research into the Prison system here in Ghana so that should I find myself being gaoled by any twist of fate, I can find solace in the fact that, I didn’t lower the level of my ring tone.

Prison according to Wikipedia is a place in which people are physically confined and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms the Prison is referred to as is penitentiary also known as pen, correctional facility, remand centre, detention center, jail or gaol and many more as would be discussed in this write-up.

It is however worthy to note that there was a traditional system which saw to it that wrong doers were either banished or ‘cleansed’ by performing rituals and reinstated into society prior to the introduction of the Prisons Systems. The Prison system which abolished the former way of punishing and rehabilitating deviants in society was thus established to give safe custody to Prisoners, ensuring their welfare by protecting their rights to good health, clothing, bedding among other basic requirements and lastly, reforming and rehabilitating them by offering them opportunities to develop a set of skills through trade, training and moral education but the multi-million dollar question which begs to be asked is, are these functions for which these Prisons were built  being  met?

A Prison among other things should have a religious facility, educational facility such as a library, a gym or a place to exercise, a healthcare facility to offer medical care, psychiatric services, dental and a recreational facility which may contain at least a TV and I want to know how far we have gone to address all these requirements as a nation and if not, then what is government doing about it? 

There are currently 45 Prison establishments scattered all over the country with varying levels security such as the closed and open security systems for those who have passed their ‘FLED’ (Full license eligibility date) or those given the ROTL (release on temporary license) to visit home from time to time which is usually a quarter of the way through the Prison sentence but our security system is still nothing to write home about.

Do we have motion sensors to check the wrongful movements of inmates? What about sniffer dogs and roving patrols that will ensure that no stone is left unturned against those who are likely to break jail? What about defensible main gates and armed guard towers where movement from a distance can be monitored?

The Prison system as an extension of the Ministry of Justice aims at punishing and rehabilitating criminals as defined by the law but you realize that the Prison service is mostly interested in only the retributive aspect of their mandate. This is because most of the inmates come out worse than they went inside and you are tempted to ask if they are actually trained to master their acts that sent them there in the first place. 

A Prison system requires that an officer be made responsible for the welfare and supervision of three Prisoners but the ratio in Ghana has risen above six criminals to one officer and counting. Even though the Prison service has been understaffed for a very long time, it is laudable to note that, the quality in the personnel has improved over the years due to the qualification of new recruits.

The Prison service in its effort to upgrade structures to meet the ever demanding and increasing number of criminals however has institutional bottlenecks that continually make lack of funds persistent. They are not granted the right amount of money needed to upgrade facilities which is an indictment to the powers that be and this goes a long way to make the living conditions of the inmates palpable and gross.

Inmates are allowed to sleep, urinate, eat and attend to nature’s calls in their cells and this is an infringement on their rights because they are a part of society and should not be treated inhumanely, not to talk about the diseases they can contract living under such circumstances.

The Prison service in its effort as part of restructuring the rehabilitation and to give a sense of dignity to the inmates has proposed to change their name from Ghana Prisons service to Ghana correctional service since the year 2007, but is yet to be approved by an act of parliament which would in tend give the law a force. As to why the bill is yet to be promulgated into a law after six years and counting is another area we will look at some other time.

Our system has no ‘deferred sentence’ where for one reason or the other, one’s sentence can be deferred until they are ready to serve their terms. Examples can be given of pregnant women who are sentenced to jail terms and allowed to deliver and cater for their new born babies with the scanty resources that are provided to the inmates. Ill-health is also another reason why deferred sentences has to be introduced into our penal system so that inmates can be given special treatments at home until they are fit again to continue serving their terms.

Currently, there are about 14,000 inmates who are sharing resources meant for about 8000 inmates and you can tell that, the situation is purely a matter of the fittest surviving against all odds. Most people are not supposed to be there in the first place and this behooves the justice system to expedite trials on remand Prisoners who in some instances would be acquitted and discharged or imprisoned to ease the pressure off the resources and to also mitigate wrongful punishment of people because justice delayed is justice denied.

Apparently, most of these remand Prisoners mostly are there because they have not been able to afford a lawyer and that is bad. The government has to furnish these people with lawyers on pro bono basis to see to it that justice is dispensed timely, which can go a long way to boost the capacity of the justice system and to help people build confidence in the system.

We can also reduce the number of these remand Prisoners by sentencing them to undertaking community services. The government can make use of these deviants by putting them to work in their communities to help clean the communities or help contribute their quota to the community by doing diligently what they have been tasked to do and this can also go a long way to serve as a deterrent to others, because the idea of the justice system is not necessarily to be retributive but to help people change and become good citizens.

Ghana happens to be one of the destinations that still make use of archaic Prison infrastructures dating as far back as four hundred years e.g. James fort, which was built for only 200 people but now houses about 740 inmates per the data available as at the time of reviewing the available literature.

There are no proper transport systems to convey inmates to and from the field where they sometimes work. Exposing and leaving these inmates on their own can be dangerous to the Prison Guards and society at large, because some hardly reform, as they keep plotting their vengeance, especially, those who were wrongfully incarcerated.

There is no gainsaying that the food given to the inmates is of bad quality and mal-nutritional, but it is probably because, government is not giving them much. Alternatively, i do not think the tax payer’s money should be channeled into feeding Prisoners. Most of these Prisoners could be made to work and keep large acres of farm lands, especially those who are sentenced with hard labor. The state cannot be at their brunt while they were free and still spend its money on them while incarcerated and proper management of this situation can even give the nation a surplus from their produce.

Sadly, most of these inmates only come back into society as hardened criminals because there are no

adequate training and education for them. Recidivism; the act of relapsing into criminal activities, abounds in our society because there are no workshops to train these inmates and where there are, they are not operational and no one seems to care because the crime or neglect being perpetrated is not directly on our doorsteps.

Most of these deviants sifted from the public domain and named as Prisoners ended there in the first place through no fault of theirs but through system failure. A system that sentences an unemployed young man for uprooting a neighbor’s cassava without his consent and tries an employed civil servant forever for embezzling public funds meant for the collective growth of everyone is certainly a failed system. 

These Prisoners must be helped to regain their sense of worth and self-esteem to be able to be re-integrated into society without problem. It will be a step in the right direction if social and civil organizations can come out to help the government to tackle the problems and solutions herein by donating and sponsoring some of the things needed to fully rehabilitate the system and it’s dependents in a bid to making this place a better place for all of us.

THE WEED!!

It’s known by so many names such as sensimilla, wee, weed, marijuana, skunk, high grade and what have you. Its simply called the weed because it distinguishes itself from other weeds. Like all narcotics, whether natural or synthetic (e.g.: cocaine, cocaine leaves, opium, marijuana) has generated so much controversy despite their numerous medicinal values.

Wisdom weed as it is sometimes referred to is rumored to have originated or first found in the gardens of the great king Solomon. Some schools of thought even have this to say about King Solomon using it for so many purposes. The weed is administered in many ways. It is taken orally by smoking, rolled in a piece of paper which sometimes resembles a stick of cigarette. If brewed it is also taken in the form of tea by drinking. At times it is also used as a food supplement. It is also said to keep evil spirits at bay and for the healing of Asthma. It is also used for industrial purposes to produce clothing and anchor rope used to tie down ships.

The smoking of the weed has landed so many in troubles than they had anticipated. Some are in jail for either possession or smoking of the weed and even cultivation. Some are jailed with hard labor and its consequent death to the dismay of some section of the minority and majority in society. There are statutory laws enacted in most countries against the ban of the weed and its possession is deemed unlawful and goes contrary to the tenets encoded in the constitution. People have been brutalized, eventually rendering others physically challenged in the process.
                                                               
I have not really taken the pain to find out why so much emphasis and its enforcement is paramount to many leaders and countries. They embark on passionate persecution of people who make use of the natural weed God has created. Sometimes I am tempted to think if anyone will be apprehended smoking the leaves of a neem tree.

Without fear or favor, I want to say my mind as a normal rational being that has been conscientized by God to reason, uphold and to promote his works. Cocaine is one of the many deadly narcotics which stimulate people beyond the limit they even want to reach. It can ruin a whole generation in a matter of years but we see the supposed big men in our societies peddling it. An example is the infamous MV Benjamin case which implicated so many big men who were supposed to be role models and people we look up to. Am yet to see a ‘small man’ engage in it. This people are still champions in our societies because they call the shots. Our cultural goal defined by this attitude and direction is money. There is more to life than calling shots. Life is about attaining a spiritual oneness with your maker. This people walk freely in our societies because we have not gathered enough evidence to gaol them.

Cigarette is another subtle drug with many hazardous chemicals which harms and kills people every day. It proposes many major health threats to a smoker and non smoker and they are all over the place backed by the same law that bans the smoke of marijuana. Cigarette has a lot of compositions that are artificially made, unlike the natural weed but has legal backing. Why?  The government makes way too much money in the form of tax what is the difference between these two substances? Maybe u can tell me. But to me, they are all smoke and can kill.

If it’s the packaging, then why can’t government give people the franchise to process it so they can get their share of the money they are always interested in, thereby creating jobs for people? There was an inscription on the pack of cigarette that read ‘smoking cigarette can be harmful to your health’ but now it reads ‘smoking cigarette can kill’ yet it is being produced in large quantities and consumed the same way. Who is the government kidding? Is it an issue of majority against minority? They are even listed on the stock market to boost sales.

                                                                               

If cigarette kills, then why would some sane men promote this deadly commodity on the market endorsed by the government? The government is made up of religious leaders, educationists, intellectuals, opinion leaders and people we look up to for direction. The least talked about those who smoke the better.

Coffee is another stimulant packaged nicely to get us hooked. Coffee has about 923 chemicals in it and the government has seen nothing wrong with it. Coffee can keep you awake all day like Valium and they are all legal.

Another slow poison we have internalized in our society is alcohol. This commodity is used on all sort of occasion and its very deadly, killing people every second of the day. Some get their livers burnt, some drink and drive resulting in accidents, some have lost their cherished virginity status through the use of alcohol, miscarriage, acted foolishly or divulged information they would not have given out even if they were threatened with death. We all like it and when the consequences of drinking surfaces, all we say is ‘oh!’, sometimes we mentally ostracize the people from society because we tag them as Retreatists.

Holland has legalized the use of the weed. It’s a very good step towards the right direction in my opinion for other countries to emulate because there is no difference between the people of Ghana, U.S.A., U.K., and the people of Holland. We are all one people, and its sheer hypocrisy. The government gives people license to use the gun, yet anytime a gun is used, a person dies. Licenses are also given for cars to be driven and it also kills, so why can’t the government allow the people to smoke the weed and die like that of cigarette smokers who will die anyway? Thought education is supposed to liberate us from all this petty irrational setbacks?

There is this perpetuated myth that the weed drives people mad; but tell me, what in this world does not make people affective people? The effect of the weed solely depends on the excessive use and later become an addictive dependent on an individual. There is no scientific proof to back this assertion just like there is none to back the fact that too much studying can drive people mad, just like there is none to back the fact that people renegade on the orders of deities they look up to and go mad.  They are all propaganda to get our minds off the wrong doings of the government.

Maybe the government is apprehensive on the smokers because it is trying to save them from self-destruct, but the big and multi-dollar question still remains. Does government cares about the people? How does he express his care for those who don’t smoke? If it was, it would not promote cigarette and alcohol and not regulate it. The government is just selfish and insensitive to the people they govern.

We can’t pretend we are not confronted with a menace. The people who smoke the weed and are intend labeled and stigmatized are not aliens. They are/were our friends or family members in the society. All of us have a brother or a sister who smokes whether occasionally or excessively, therefore the self-righteousness must stop so we can approach this issue dispassionately and find lasting solutions to it.

The big issue here is that we don’t have to buy into government’s propaganda and be rational in our approach to these things that pertains in our society. It predates us and we can do less about it. If weed is banned and its use makes the user evil and socially unfit, then some social drugs such the alcohol, which impairs vision and dismantles the mental judgments of a drinker should also be banned. And same should go for all forms of smoke, be it cigarette, cigar and tobacco. The government should try and preserve a smoke free environment and stop the excessive hypocrisy about the democracy they are pursuing.
                                                                     
Lastly, let’s stop being judgmental and quick to tag people who use the weed for there is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it behooves all of us to stop talking about those who use the weed. There may be many reasons as to why a person might be under the influence of the weed.