Features
Decongestion in our prisons – a national emergency
The need to decongest our prisons has been on the radar of government and civil society organisations for quite a while. Some action has been taken but there is still much to be done with the advent of this terrible COVID-19 pandemic.
It has become much more urgent in view of the pandemic and the mode of transmission or infection, taking into account the current situation in our prisons. The prisons are extremely overcrowded.
According to the Ghana Business News of October 3, 2018, the overcrowding of the prisons was about 52 per cent. A TV news item I watched, shocked me to the core. Inmates were packed like sardines in a can and I wondered how on earth anyone can have a sound sleep under such circumstances.
The noncustodial sentencing being advocated by the general public, civil society organisations and the Prisons Council, must be given the required attention to prevent an outbreak of the pandemic in our prisons.
One of the protocols for prevention of the spread of the COVID-19 is social or physical distancing. The social distancing is not feasible under the current situation, where it is alleged that inmates are sometimes compelled to sleep in shifts and where they are able to sleep at the same time, they are packed like sardines.
The psychological impact on the inmates is a serious matter that must worry the authorities. These inmates are supposed to be reformed so they can fit into society on their release. If these inmates become angry at the society in general due to the unfair treatment being given them, would society be safe on their release?
Another aspect of this worrying situation is the possibility or should I say the likelihood of infection from the prison officers. These officers interact with fellow officers who interact with the general public on a daily basis and then they go on to interact with the prisoners. If any of the officers on duty gets infected, the chances of infecting the inmates would be quite high.
Given the impracticability of the social distancing in our prisons currently, we can only hope and pray for a miracle just like President Conte of Italy did when he was overwhelmed by the pandemic.
One peculiar aspect of this virus and a few others is that, someone could have the virus and still would not show any of the symptoms that would easily mark him out as an infected person. Given this scenario, an asymptomatic prison officer could spread the virus among the prisoners and a catastrophe will be on our hands.
In trying to implement noncustodial sentencing in our country, the culture of the people needs to be factored into the process; otherwise it would not have the desired effect. It would have to be a sentence that has the potential to bring shame to the family of the offender.
When that happens, it serves as a deterrent which is the main objective of any sentencing of a court of law. It must have an element that constitutes an affront or humiliation to the community in which the offender lives. For example instead of sending a young man who has stolen say a mobile phone to prison, he can be given a noncustodial sentence to sweep the main street of the community in which he lives for a specified period.
A prison dress could be given to him or her to wear when sweeping the street each morning to differentiate him or her from the normal sanitation workers whose duty is to ensure a clean environment. An information van can be dispatched to run commentary on the misbehaviour that has landed the offender in that trouble so everybody will know that the offender is doing the work for free as punishment for a criminal activity.
The stigma it could bring to the offender’s family will be enough deterrent to other families who would definitely admonish their family members to take a cue from the shame the offender has brought on his or her family.
There are reports of meagre sums of money used in feeding the inmates and therefore the lack of sufficient and quality food. The country has a lot of needs and this accounts for the lack of adequate resources needed to feed the prisoners. Noncustodial sentencing will reduce the amount released for taking care of the prisoners and resources will be made available to address other pressing social needs like shelter for abused mothers and children.
A hungry man, it is said, is an angry man and the negative social impact hunger can cause when inmates are released into society is huge, hence the need for noncustodial sentencing.
There are other diseases, like Meningitis, that is deadly and spreads through body contact. Recently, a variant of it has hit the Upper West Region, killing a lot of people. It is believed that the virus thrives in hot environments a description in which the current overcrowded prisons fits perfectly.
We are told by health personnel that the current virus responsible for these deaths is a new variant which no vaccine has been developed to combat. It is just like the COVID-19 and, therefore, it is being managed and the earlier the detection, the better the chances for survival of infected people.
One of the serious issues that can arise out of discontent in our prisons resulting from overcrowding is rioting. The state of preparedness to deal with riots in our prisons is yet to be determined.
It is not something that should be entertained since it can result in jail break which can have serious consequences on the lives of both inmates and that of the prison officers as well as their immediate families and even members of the surrounding communities. Anything therefore that can result in riot must be dealt with before it becomes an issue that impacts negatively on society.
Just imagine the mental torture of being restricted like a caged animal and then the further torture the inmates go through each night and you can have an idea of the rage being built up over time in the inmates towards society in general.
Recently, when the restriction was imposed due to the COVID-19, most people became restless even though we were in our own homes. Most people felt trapped and were counting the minutes and the hours till the restrictions were lifted, even though they could eat what they liked and do whatever they wanted; and this was for only a few weeks.
Consider an inmate, who is in a much more restricted environment, cannot eat whatever he likes, sleep in an overcrowded room and you would begin to appreciate the mental torture inmates go through.
In order to achieve the reformation objective of sentencing an offender, taking into account the lack of adequate resources, noncustodial sentencing is one sure way to go. Noncustodial sentencing would reduce government expenditure on prison inmates, free resources for other social intervention projects, achieve the reformation agenda in a cost effective manner, help in preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, help in promoting our human rights agenda as a nation and motivate our prison officers so they can effectively manage offenders that will be given custodial sentences.
Laud Kissi-Mensah, a social commentator
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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