The Ghana Prisons Service says it has recorded eighteen point six (18.6%) discharged cases as against four percent (4%) conventions between the period of 2007 and 2021.

Within that same period, the Service also recorded a sharp increase in the number of prison inmates granted bail, 35.4%, by the law courts.

Thus, 1,563 inmates were granted bail, 28 were referred to psychiatric hospital, 839 were discharged, and 180 were convicted.

The Justice for All Programmes has been commended by the Prisons Service for this success.

Through the intention of the Programme, some remand prisoners had access to justice and their freedom.

The Director-General of Prisons, Isaac Kofi Eygir in a speech read on his behalf indicated that the Programme with the support of the Perfector of Sentiment (POS) Foundation, human rights-based NOG, has provided free legal assistance to inmates.

He was speaking at a day workshop organised for Journalists of the Judicial Press Corps in recently.

“They also provide support services to prison – preparation and filing of appeals,” he adds. “As part of capability building, officers working as paralegals participated in some training programmes organised by the US Embassy… and the POS Foundation…”

Nonetheless, there are still some 1,343 out of 13,437 prison population.