There is this video clip making rounds in social media from a UTV news documentary where a man who claims he was an ex-convict made shocking revelations about life behind bars. In the first place the Prison authority must confirm whether he indeed servedjail term or he was just someone who wanted to raise unnecessary alarm about life in prison.
If he is only an alarmist, he needs to be tracked down and punished severely for spreading panic and fear. If however he was a guest of the state, then serious investigations should be conducted in our prisons and complete reformation processes carried out.
In all things the man said some things which confirm what we have been hearing about our prisons. Sodomy, drugs and prisoners becoming worse than they were before they entered jail. In his best seller, “Death and Pain: Rawlings’ Ghana: The Inside Story,” a renowned journalist, Mike Adjei told about horrifying experiences in jail which included drugs; sodomy, which though he indicated was prevalent, was an act punished by the prisoners themselves and prisoners becoming worse when they stepped out of jail than when they entered.
The whole idea of imprisoning people who do wrong is to correct them because prisons are to be correctional centers. What is the use if a petty thief is thrown into jail and comes out a hardened armed robber? Some innocent people who unfortunately could either not plead their case well in court or even if they did, a corrupted judge will still find them guilty anyway, may enter into jail and come out very determined to pay society back in the ways he got taught in jail. Sidney Sheldon’s book, “If Tomorrow Comes,” tells a beautiful story of an ordinary woman and banker, Tracy Whitney, who was framed up and wrongly jailed, who came out wanting to be correct but was still punished by society by stigmatization;who then turn towards those who got her into jail and extracted sweet vengeance on all including the judge and later she turned out to be a successful con artist extraordinaire.
Our man in the video clip narrated horrifying events of naked corruption among the prison wardens who used prisoners in hard drug trade. He indicated that among the crimes perpetrated freely in the prison were mobile money fraud, scams, sodomy (incidentally this time round it is widely known and accepted by both wardens and prisoners), profiteering, wardens selling to prisoners donations are made to them (the prisoners), transport fares for freed prisoners being retained by wardens and other malpractices perpetrated by wardens.
The mobile money fraud and scams are perpetrated on innocent people living freely outside the prison walls by the use of the mobile phone the prisoner is using.
It is rather shocking to hear things that go on in our prisons. No doubt ex-convicts do not have any remorse for the crimes they committed and rather go deeper into crime. The man in the video stated more than once that he thought prisons were meant to transform inmates but not in Ghana. Prisons here seem to be the highest level education centre for the act of practical crime.
We need to rethink as a nation because if the prisons become the breeding grounds for high crime then sooner than later criminals will overtake this country.
Our justice system must also be overhauled and this means our judges must be above board. If the suspect is innocent, there is no need to make him guilty so that he is put into jail.
I once had a conversation with a magistrate judge in Senchi. I asked her that assuming she was drinking in a bar and a fight erupted between some of the patrons and one got stabbed to death, and in court someone who was not involved in the fight was brought in to face her as the accused, what would she do?
She said she would recuse herself and let another judge handle the case. However, and this is the most interesting bit, if no judge can replace her, she will sit on the case as someone who did not witness that act of violence. It will be left to that unfortunate innocent person to speak well and convince the court that he was innocent, other than that he would end up in jail.
Many innocent people have been sent to jail because no proper investigations have been made by the prosecutor. Beginning from the Police station a suspect is told what to write in his statement. The Police officer could ill-advise him that if he wrote his statement in a particular way he would be freed. Based upon what he wrote he could land in jail. And some lawyers are known to lead their clients into jail, because of monetary gains or pressures from above.
There are lots of cases abound in the United States for example when innocent people are thrown into jail or even made to face execution for crimes they know nothing about. False witnesses, inconclusive investigation, misguided minded judges, pressure from above and playing to the gallery are some of the things that send the wrong people to jail or get death sentences.
In the States people can be in prison for over twenty-five years before proper forensic investigations would establish their innocence. Some are pronounce innocent after they were dead, killed state execution.
A justice and legal system above board is what we need to establish in this country and most importantly all our prisons must be renovated to make prisoners live like humans in very neat and healthy environment.
In some countries prisoners come out with grades of higher institutions, like degrees in law, banking, economics, and engineering among others. Ghana must turn our criminals into such useful citizens with profession or trade and I believe when they come out they will be grateful to society and live good and purposeful lives. Ghana will be the winner.
Hon Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
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