Kumasi prisoners on hunger strike - Authorities reveal

Authorities of Kumasi Central Prisons have revealed that inmates sometimes reject food rationed them and go hungry due to bad taste of the meal and other poor conditions at the reform facility.

“The prisons food is so bad that inmates have to reject them and go hungry”, Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ghana Prisons Service, ASP. Richard Burkari revealed.

The PRO stated GH¢1.80 budgeted as feeding fee for each inmate is inadequate for over 6,000 inmates currently in the facility calling for an increment from central government.

Mynewsgh.com sources in the prison told reporter Kwabena Danso-Dapaah that conditions at the cells and medical services in the prison are appalling and inmates have had to adopt to situation for a very long time.

Inmates adopt a practice call “Shit-On-Shit” when there is no water to flush their water closets because the taps of the facility have no water running through them which sometimes produce pungent smell.

“The supposed reform facility does not have a single medical officer to respond to the emergency calls of sick inmates” this reporter was told by a source on strict anonymity.

“We are subjected to horrendous treatment by officials as if we are on death row” a sick prisoner at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital alleged.

The Kumasi prison which was established decades ago is one of the country’s oldest prisons and was meant to hold 600 people but is now accommodating prisoners in excess of 6,000.

Despite promises by successive governments to build a modern structure and relocate the inmates, nothing concrete has been done.

The congestion at the prison coupled with deteriorating facilities in view of the fact that the facility has not seen any major facelift since it was built, is exposing inmates to various forms of ailments duly acknowledged by authorities.

The lip service paid by duty bearers is however making the situation worst as officers are themselves feel insecure under the dilapidating structure.