Nsawam (Eastern Region), 9 March ’99 –
Nii Okaidja Adamafio, Minister of the Interior, on Monday said 3,000 prison officers will be provided with residential accommodation within the next three years. He said this is within the government’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which seeks to address the problems of the service from this year to 2001. Nii Okaidja made the announcement when opening the 14th annual joint conference of Regional Commanders and Agriculture officers of the service at the Nsawam Prisons. He said besides “the ongoing construction of a Medium Security Prison at Ankaful in the Central Region, we plan to establish three more Camp Prisons and construct two Medium Prisons by 2001 to reduce overcrowding”. Nii Okaidja said problems facing the Service have been “well identified and are being systematically tackled. Some require immediate attention while others could be done in the long term”. He said the possibility of trading off prime lands belonging to the Service to estate developers to build new prisons on virgin and spacious lands with adequate facilities for prison officers, is being considered. Nii Okaidja urged the officers to secure the rights of the prisoners in their care to be able “to take the Ghana Prisons into the next millennium with a new image and a renewed sense of purpose. “The advancement of personal freedoms bestowed by the Constitution constitutes great challenges to the Ghana Prisons Service as it seeks to execute its mandate”. Nii Okaidja, therefore, urged the officers to discuss at the forum how they can ensure the protection of prisoners. Brigadier A. K. Djangmah, Director-General of the Service in a welcoming address said the service will make judicious use of funds provided by the government but pleaded that such funds should be released to them with minimum delay. Meanwhile, a new toilet described as environmentally friendly has been built for the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons Estimated at 18 million cedis and known as “Enviro-Loo toilet”, it was donated by Hedzome Limited, environmental, civil and mining engineers. It was developed in South Africa by Dr La Trobe of the University of Stellenbosche about five years ago and has won international awards from the World Intellectual Property Organisation and Organisation of African Unity. Mr Ed Holdbrook, Managing Director of the company, said it has advantages over KVIP because it is odour-free and does not attract flies. He explained that the “Enviro-Loo” operates by separating the liquid and solid waste through radiant heat and ventilation to cause the separation of human waste, toilet paper and organic material into an “in- offensive compost-like material”.
