Mr Emile Short, Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in Ghana, has called for vast improvements in Ghana's penal system to enhance the human rights of prisoners. Opening a seminar for prison officers on inmates' human rights, Mr Short described conditions in police and the prison cells as deplorable.
"A suspect or even a convicted prisoner does not lose his right to human dignity and we not only have a moral obligation to respect their dignity as human beings, but it is a legal and constitutional obligation as well," Mr Short said.
The seminar forms part of a series of programmes to sensitise prison officers on the concept, practice and implementation of human rights. Mr Short said CHRAJ organised the seminar after its annual inspection of police cells and prison settlements brought into light the harsh conditions under which inmates live.
"Our findings have not been encouraging. We found congestion and overcrowding in pre-colonial structures with poor ventilation." He said the prisons have inadequate food and no medication for sick prisoners due to the cash and carry system, the commission reported.
The Commission also noted with concern the imprisonment of pregnant women, sentencing and imprisonment of juveniles in adult prisons, the prolonged detention of remand prisoners without trial, coupled with woefully inadequate bedding facilities.
"The impression we had, which unfortunately still persists, was that the authorities do not put such premium on the rights of suspects and prisoners," Mr Short said.
Mr Short said CHRAJ made recommendations to the authorities to improve the living conditions of prisoners. As a result the government increased feeding allowance, transferred some juveniles to borstal institutions, commuted some death sentences to life imprisonment and others were released on pardon. Mr Short said these are positive changes, but much remains to be done.
He reminded the authorities "when a person is convicted and sentenced to prison, it is primarily the convict's right to personal liberty that is forfeited. "Other human rights such as right to human dignity remain intact and should be observed."
Mr Short said among other things the seminar is aimed at enhancing prison officers' appreciation of fundamental human rights and freedoms under the constitution and the United Nations' standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
"Judges and police officers should pay regular visits to the prisons so that they do not indirectly, in the exercise of their functions, compound problems like congestion in the prisons and the burden of the state to feed the teeming prison population," Mr Short said.
