Head of Prisons in the Upper East Region, DDP Henry Dasaah Ashley has appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency review feeding grants for prisoners.
According to him, the feeding grant for a prisoner in a day is pegged at GHC1.80; an amount he describes as woefully inadequate considering the rise in the cost of foodstuffs and the rising numbers of prisoners at the various facilities in the Upper East Region.
“Our concerns are the feeding rate per prisoner. Currently, it is one cedi, eighty pessewas and this is woefully inadequate looking at the cost of food items being high. We just hope this amount can be reviewed upwards by the authorities,” he told a1radioonline.com
“Somewhere last year, we had an issue with our suppliers who refused to supply us because we could not pay but we had to talk to the contractors to understand the situation and try to help, and we were able to have a common understanding,” DDP Henry Dassah recalled the hassle he had to go through in convincing their suppliers in order to get enough food for the prisoners because they could not pay.
He indicated that although there have been several complaints from the prisoners on the quantity of food they are being fed on a daily basis “we have been trying to have common understanding with them because of the challenges we are confronted with the feeding rate in particular. We have been educating them to understand that it is not our doing and that there is hope for the future. We also have allowed their relations to visit them to give them cooked food”.
He also disclosed to a1radioonline.com that apart from the feeding grant, Navrongo prisons where he stationed has a deficit in buses to transport prisoners to and from the court. He mentioned that although the prison was provided with a bus two years ago it was an old bus which develops faults on a daily basis.
He noted that a new bus will not only facilitate the movement of prisoners but also help the prison to carry out various activities including farming in order to make some money to support their operations.
“Another problem that we have here is the vehicle situation. Even though we were given a bus in 2015 it was old and has been giving us problems. It breaks down every now and then and so if we get a new bus it will be more comfortable for us. It can also help us undertake farming activities. We cannot undertake farming activities with an old bus because it will break down but if we are provided with a new bus, we will go for a project site close to Tono irrigation project so that we will supplement the effort of government.”
Although DDP Dasaah is the head of prisons in the Upper East Region, he has no command vehicle to aid his mobility to other prison facilities in the region. DDP Dasaah uses a private vehicle of one of his officers.
The command vehicle which was over eight years ago is now a white elephant due to the frequent breakdown.
BY: Offei-Akoto Ayeh & Joshua Asaah/a1radioonline.com/Ghana
