Respect ex-convicts – GBA President advocates

Mr Oduro Amponsah, Brong-Ahafo Regional President of the Ghana Bar Association ((GBA), has condemned stigmatization  of ex-convicts, and  appealed to the public to re-integrate them into society.

Mr Oduro said prison was meant to reform and not to harden inmates, but regretted that the country’s prisons were finding it difficult to achieve this objective.

He made the appealed at the launch of the Center for Human Rights Enforcement and Prisoners AID (CHREP AID), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in Sunyani over the weekend.

The NGO works to promote the welfare of vulnerable and marginalized people, especially prisoners and people in police and prison detention.

Mr Oduro said the reformation of ex-convicts was a collective responsibility of government and the public.

He asked government to solve the problems of overcrowding and dilapidated nature of the country’s prisons.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Christopher Tawiah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Public Relation Officer, said prisoners have basic rights, including access to quality food and health.

Justice Ato Essan, Acting Supervising High Court Judge in Sunyani, said conditions in the country’s prisons needed to be improved.

Mr Antwi Agyei, Executive Director of CHREP AID, regretted that some prisoners were malnourished and lacked adequate medical attention.

He said that the Sunyani Central Prisons accommodated more than 800 prisoners instead of 271 inmates, adding that approximately 18,000 are being kept in facilities designed to accommodate 4,000 inmates in the country.

Mr Antwi said this had resulted in congestion, overcrowding and spread of communicable diseases.

Source: GNA