Prison inmate locator in Ghana?

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has provided an inmate locator as a public service to promote public safety and welfare and access to offender’s information.

Extreme care is needed in the use of the information. Mistaken identification may occur when one relies solely upon name, age, CDCR number, admitted date, and/or current location to identify individuals.

Any person who needs information regarding an inmate's conviction information contacts the court or other jurisdictions.

In Pennsylvania, Inmate Locator is a database that contains information about each inmate currently under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections. The Inmate Locator is a useful tool for learning where an inmate is housed, the inmate's race, date of birth and other items.

Information regarding where an inmate is housed is not an indication as to whether the inmate is receiving any treatment that may be offered by the Department of Corrections.

The Inmate Locator does not contain information on inmates not currently residing in a state correctional institution.

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections updates this information on a daily basis to ensure that it is complete and accurate as possible.

Information such as middle name and date of birth is self-reported by the inmate and is not independently verified and may not be accurate.

Through the initiative of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronics Communications, in collaboration with the Ghana Prison Service, it is to develop the Prison-Inmate Location System to furnish the relatives of incarcerated persons information about their relations.

The initiative would also enable relatives of remand prisoners to know the date their relations were arrested, the police or prisons cells they are kept, the exact court presiding over their cases and their next court appearance.

Ghana would be setting the pace to ensure that family members of inmates across the country have daily information about their relatives.

Mr Kobby Akyeampong, the Administrator of GIFEC, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, explained that the initiative is to tackle the real problems of prisoners being dumped in remand and forgotten.

"It is a simple tool to help everybody, especially the families of remand prisoners to locate their relations," adding that GIFEC had discussed the initiative with the Parliamentary Select Committee on security and is in the process of developing the guidelines to roll-out the programme.

He explained that the system, when developed, would be handled by the judiciary, Ghana Prisons Service and the Ghana Police Service.

The prison inmate locator would also assist the inaugurated High Court at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, which started sitting to hear motions and appeals.

The Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, last July inaugurated the court within the premises of the Nsawam Maximum Security Prisons to ensure speedy trial of remand prisoners, to cut down on over-crowding in the prisons.

The Chief Justice appointed Justice Constant K. Hometowu as the Justice of the High Court, Nsawam Medium Security Prison, who would exercise criminal jurisdiction conferred on all high courts.

Additionally, Justice Hometowu would exercise jurisdiction as a Judge of the Circuit Court and District Magistrate Court.

Setting up an inmate locator in prisons across the country would help address some of the nation’s shortfalls identified by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, which noted that the human rights conduct in Ghana’s prisons and prayer camps does not meet international standards.

According to the report, even though Ghana has emerged from its past of colonialism and military rule and its economic progress has had a stabilising effect in the region, there remains a strong element of traditional practice that must be engaged with, in order to ensure that human rights take hold in all regions of the country.

“There are isolated incidents of torture and ill-treatment by police officers during the initial stages of interrogation. While prisoners did not allege ill-treatment by prison staff, the practice of delegating disciplinary authority to fellow inmates is a corrupt and bad practice that must be eradicated within the prison system.’’

The Special Rapporteur also said the international human rights standards are not met in the Ghanaian prison system.

“The extreme level of overcrowding extends to those on remand, the convicted and the condemned, and results in a number of serious violations: inadequate nutrition, insufficient access to medical care, poor sanitation, personal insecurity and the absence of rehabilitation services,” the report noted.

The report mentioned that the complaints system regarding allegations of torture and ill-treatment and the investigation, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators are provided for in law but not implemented, except in a very few cases.

The Reverend Seth Baah Agyekum, Ghana Co-ordinator of Alpha International, lauded GIFEC and the Prisons Authorities for initiating the process to set up the inmate locator in Ghana.

He said the idea would reduce the pressure on family members who want to know the location of their members in the corrective centres and prisons.

He said Ghana Prison Service needs transformational capacity building to improve conditions in correctional centres.

Rev Agyekum challenged corporate Ghana, organisations and stakeholders to help improve prison conditions across the country.

The prison inmate locator initiative forms part of broader changes Mr Akyeampong has introduced at GIFEC.

He told the GNA that as part of plans for this year, management is developing an Information Communication Technology hub that allows state institutions to hike onto the platform for their daily operations to better serve its audience.

On healthcare, Mr Akyeampong said GIFEC would improve on the information communication technology connectivity of the community; Health Improvement Services, compound project with the introduction of software to enhance health care delivery.

He said that tele-medicine, a system where technicians are trained to man these facilities to better deliver quality health care services, was also in the pipeline.

In the area of education, Mr Akyeampong said GIFEC, in collaboration with Ghana Library Authority, is to develop an e-library platform where all libraries would be linked to afford Ghanaian access to all books and reading materials online and also create an opportunity for the youth to develop themselves.

"We are in discussions with the National Information Technology Agency for the project to be rolled out very soon," he said.