Kumasi Central Prison population hits 1800, triple its capacity

As of April 26, 2024, the Kumasi Central Prison faces a severe overcrowding  crisis as its population increases, with nearly 1800 inmates housed within a facility originally designed to accommodate only 600.

This threefold excess in prison population not only highlights a systemic issue within the facility but also mirrors a broader, national problem affecting various prisons across Ghana.

The overcrowding significantly compromises the rights and well-being of both convicted inmates and those remanded awaiting trial.

The alarming overcrowding at Kumasi Central Prison has caught the attention of judges, legal practitioners, prison authorities, and various stakeholders.

These concerns are underscored by the violation of basic human rights and the degradation of living conditions within the prison.

Overcrowding in prisons leads to inadequate healthcare, reduced access to sanitation facilities, and a higher likelihood of violence, all of which pose serious risks to inmate welfare and safety.

In response to such critical issues, Ghana introduced the Justice for All Program in 2008, aimed at expediting the cases of remand prisoners who often wait years before their cases are heard.

This program includes the setup of mobile courts within prisons and the provision of free legal representation to alleviate the strain on the justice system.

Despite its successes, the program has been unable to fully counterbalance the rapid inflow of inmates and the slow judicial processes, resulting in persistent overcrowding.

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During a recent workshop in Kumasi, focused on improving access to legal aid, Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei, a Court of Appeal judge and also a judge at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, shed light on another profound issue: the acute shortage of legal representation.

This shortage hampers effective justice delivery and leaves many detainees in a limbo without legal support.

Justice Adjei emphasized, “It is a must that any person who is charged by a court must be represented by a lawyer.

The African court has given several decisions against countries like Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, and Rwanda for their failure in this regard, arguing that they do not have enough lawyers to meet the demands of accused persons.

We must establish paralegal services in the country to support them. Some people languish in jail because they don’t have lawyers.”

His remarks came during an event organized by the POS Foundation and sponsored by GIZ, which marked the commissioning of a new paralegal office in Kumasi.

The POS Foundation, a prominent human rights civil society organization in Ghana, has been at the forefront of partnering with the Ghana Prisons Service to address these systemic issues.

Their efforts include the successful pilot of an in-prison paralegal program at Nsawam Medium Security Prison in 2018, which has provided critical legal assistance to inmates without prior access to legal aid.

This initiative demonstrates the potential of paralegal services to bridge the gap in legal representation and support overburdened lawyers.

Such services not only help expedite the legal processes but also ensure that justice is more accessible, especially for those who are most vulnerable.

As Ghana continues to grapple with the challenges posed by an overloaded prison system and a stretched thin judiciary, the call for expanded legal aid services, including the establishment of more paralegal offices and the strengthening of initiatives like the Justice for All Program, grows louder.

These efforts are crucial not only for alleviating the current overcrowding but also for upholding the fundamental human rights of every individual within the justice system.

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