The Hagar Darkey Ministries of the Holy Ghost Temple of the Royal House Chapel at Michel Camp on Monday fêted inmates at the Akuse Local Prison in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region.
About 30 members of the ministry worshipped and danced with the inmates as part of their “Christian mandate to visit the imprisoned”. They also served the inmates breakfast.
They donated items such as toothpastes, used clothes, slippers and toiletries to the inmates.
Mrs Hagar Darkey, the eponymous leader of the ministry, told The Finder that though they had been engaged in various outreach programmes, this was their first such visit to the prison.
DSP Henry Darko, who received the delegation, recounted the over 100-year history of the prison to the delegation. He was grateful to the ministry for remembering them during the festivities.
He, however, told a sad story of how the prison had not seen any major expansion or renovation works since the women’s prison was built in 1994. He said even though the capacity of the prison was 90, the facility currently housed 226 prisoners, of which eight were females, with 218 male inmates.
This overcrowding, he said, had led to an outbreak of rashes and other epidermal infections, as well as air-borne infections, among the inmates. This, The Finder’s reporter saw when he went into the prison compound. Several of the inmates had what looked like rashes and other skin infections.
“The facility itself is under stress,” he said. “There are 15 water closets to serve the entire population of inmates, leading to a rush in the mornings.”
He said that though all reports had made requests for expansion and renovation works, these reports had largely been ignored by the authorities.
Source: The Finder Online
