Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, the Minister-Designate for the Interior, has raised severe issues in regards to the deplorable state of Ghana’s prisons, notably concerning the insufficient finances allotted for feeding inmates.
Speaking throughout his vetting earlier than the Parliamentary Appointments Committee on Friday, January 24, Muntaka pledged to prioritise jail reform if his nomination is accepted.
The Asawase Member of Parliament lamented the GH¢1.80 every day feeding finances per prisoner, describing it as grossly inadequate and inhumane.
He expressed disbelief over how such a meager quantity may present ample diet for inmates, likening it unfavourably to the care prolonged to family pets.
The Minister-Designate expressed deep concern over the well being implications of such poor diet, notably in an surroundings the place inmates are already weak to contagious ailments because of overcrowding and unsanitary circumstances.
He assured the Committee that bettering the feeding finances can be a prime precedence underneath his management.
“I was shocked when I heard that the rationing for feeding a prisoner in Ghana is GH¢1.80 for the whole day and I doubt with the greatest of respect that even the cats and dogs in our houses, how much food do we give them that we will put our own compatriots because of one mistake or the other, in trying to corect them, we feed them with GH¢1.80 and expect them to be healthy.?”
“It is a very serious thing and I assure my colleagues that I will pay attention to it and address it.”
Muntaka additionally highlighted the broader challenges going through Ghana’s jail system, together with extreme overcrowding.
Many of the nation’s prisons function far past their meant capability, creating an surroundings ripe for the unfold of ailments corresponding to tuberculosis, scabies, and different communicable sicknesses.
The Ghana Prisons Service has repeatedly known as for presidency intervention to handle these points, however progress has been sluggish.
Source: otechfmghana.com