The service said despite the increasing cost of living, feeding grants for inmates remain GH¢1.80 a day. 

The Eastern Regional Commander of the service, Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP), Samuel OwusuAmponsah in a meeting with the Judicial Committee of the Council of State at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison yesterday said the situation made feeding the inmates difficult. 

“The feeding rate of GH¢1.80 for three square meals is a big problem for us,” he cried. 

As a result, he said the service has been unable to honour its financial obligations to their suppliers for over one year now. 

“As at now, our suppliers are refusing to supply us food, because we are owing them for more than one year.

“We will like the government to increase the feeding grant for us to be able to give our inmates a good three square meals a day,” asked. 

He said though GH¢5 would still be inadequate, it would be manageable to give the inmates balanced and nutritious meals. 

In this regard, DDP Amponsah appealed to government and benevolent organisations to assist the Service go into large scale farming to make up for the feeding deficit.

Additionally, DDP Amponsah said the service was faced with logistical challenges, including operational vehicles, scanners for searches, inadequate medical supplies to stock the 10-bed medical facility at the Nsawam Prison, ICT equipment to digitise their operations to meet modern trends. 

Asking for the expansion of the facility, he said the prison were overstretched, as it currently holds 2,934 inmates beyond the 717 people it was originally constructed to contain. 

DDP Amponsah further wanted government to establish a prisons hospital to cater for the health needs of inmates instead of relying on other facilities where the security of inmates could not be guaranteed. 

A former president of the Ghana Bar Association and Chairman of the Committee, Sam Okudzeto, said the concerns of the service would be directed to the appropriate quarters for redress. 

“We have taken your complaints onboard, we will examine them and possibly call the Minister for the Interior or meet the Prisons Council for redress because they are the institution charged with the responsibility, but we would not say because we have not received anything from them, we as a Council will not do anything about the plight of the service.”

Prisons, MrOkudzeto said must no more be regarded as a place of punishment but a place to reform citizens who may have flouted the law and that the conditions must be commensurate to achieve that effect.   

As part of the familiarisation working visit, the Council was taken round the health facilities, the schools and the workshops within the male and female prisons wards. 

Other Members of the Committee on the trip were a former Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, Archbishop Justice OfeiAkrofi, aformer Anglican Bishop of Accra and the Omanhene of the Techiman Traditional Area, OseadeyoAkumfiAmeyaw IV.