ANKAFUL MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON TO ACCOMMODATE 2000 INMATES



ANKAFUL MAXIMUM SECURITY  PRISON



The Ag. Director-General of Ghana Prisons Service, Kofi Bansah, has noted that the Ankaful Maximum Prison will go a long way to decongest inmates in other prisons of the country.

He said the service has been grappling with the challenges of overcrowding and handling of high rank prisoners and many other security challenges. The commissioning of this facility, therefore, marks a new life in history of the prison service as putting the service in a better position to deliver on its mandate more efficiently.

He said, the state-of-the-art maximum-security facility also meets international maximum-security specifications and standards. The facility having an authorized capacity of two thousand prisoners has a modern health centre, a multipurpose court, a football park, inmates’ dormitories, and an administrative block. The rest being a kitchen, a corn mill house, admission and discharge block visitors’ lounge, a gate lodge, a standby generator and a bio gas plant among others. Provisions also being made for officers’ accommodation.

Again, in preparation of the grounds in readiness to receive the first inmates after the days’ commissioning, a substantive officer has been made in charge and some supportive staff has been transferred and conveyed to the facility some months ago.

However, he humbly requested on the work on the second phase, which is intended to house the training workshops expedient to enhance the training of the inmates.

In addition, some of the prisons are in dilapidated state such that they are not suitable to be kept with the kind of sophisticated or complex offenders in the prison today. There is therefore the need for some face lifting of these structures.

Moreover, the current state of officers’ accommodation in most of the prison services is an eyesore.

The President of Ghana H.E John Evans Atta Mills expressed gratitude to  the immediate past Government for supporting initiative of President Rawlings in establishing the prison in 1998. The President in 1998 cut the sod for the construction of the prison and was grateful for commissioning the first phase of the project this year.

It has taken over thirteen years for this project’s first phase to be constructed and the second phase is about to take off.

President Mills noted that government would abide by the Supreme Court ruling indicating that prisoners should be allowed to vote in 2012.  

According to the President, the move is in conformity with a ruling given by the Supreme Court, which stipulated that inmates have the right to vote.

“The Supreme Court in a recent ruling stated that inmates have the right to vote during elections and I want to assure them that our government would abide by the Supreme Court ruling and therefore enable the Electoral Commission to put in place the necessary machinery and structures to enable inmates to exercise their God given rights," President Mills said.

He said: “It is also my hope and prayer that this edifice would never be full, it would be half full, one-quarter full or one-eighth full, which would be an indication that we are finding a way of getting people to avoid entering the prisons.”

In a related development, in an interview with Joy news the Chairman of the Electoral Commission Dr. Kwadjo Afari Gyan has confirmed that prisoners would vote in 2012 however, discussions are still underway to come in agreement to see if they can vote both Parliamentary and Presidential elections or only the presidential.