Prisoners feed on 60 pesewas daily - Ashanti Regional Prisons Commander

Shocking information gathered from the Kumasi Central Prisons indicates that each inmate at the correction facility is fed on a daily food ration of 60 pesewas.

Even though on paper government spends Gh1.80 on each prisoner, in reality that is not the case. The figure is eventually reduced to a paltry 60 pesewas largely due to tax and other deductions.

The Ashanti Regional Prisons Commander, DDP Lord Nii Boye Tagoe, made the shocking disclosure to newsmen at a recent media interaction.

“On paper, government allocates Gh1.80 for the daily feeding of each prisoner in our facility. But the feeding fee eventually reduces to 60 pesewas because government takes tax and the contractor also makes his/her profit from it”.

He was speaking when the Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency, Eugne Boakye Antwi, toured the prisons to find out the challenges there.

DDP Tagoe noted that but for the benevolence of the people of Kumasi, who have been making periodic donations to the facility, the situation would have been worse. He therefore appealed to government to increase the feeding fee for the inmates.

The MP, who is also the deputy Minister for Works and Housing, donated assorted bags of rice, sugar and gallons of cooking oil to the prisons.

Receiving the items, the commander thanked the Member of Parliament for what he described as a timely donation that would go a long way to improve the living standards of the 1,800 inmates at the facility.

Hon. Eugene Boakye Antwi, who later toured the various departments at the prisons, noted that indeed there were serious challenges that needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The law maker assured that he would use his high offices to source for more aid to the Kumasi Central Prisons, adding that the personal donation he made would not be a nine-day wonder.