I had passed by that prison so many times in my life. With its tall imposing walls, I had wondered what lied behind each time I passed by. Is it true the stories I had heard about Ghana’s prisons? Well, the deadlock was broken yesterday as I was ushered in, with my two colleagues around 9 a.m., upon orders by the OIC (Officer in Charge).
“No phones, cameras or recorders are allowed in here,” grunted an officer at the final gate of entry. I had to empty my pocket of everything. Some official stuff was taken care of and our letter was shown to the 2OIC. Our initiation had begun. We had three hours to conduct a quick survey on the female prisoners. Our questionnaires were out, our pens were ready, and the talks began.
The purpose of our visit was not to listen to the individual stories of these incarcerated prisoners or those on remand, but deep within some of them, you could tell they wanted to talk and be comforted. We had to stick to our ethics and the purpose of visit, but yet, others would begin telling you about their stories even without being asked. And of course, you can’t shut such a person down. Its part of emotional health, of which I, myself was a beneficiary a couple of weeks ago when I needed people to talk to, so badly. Well, back to my focus on the prisoners, I spoke with the fair, the dark, the pretty, the ones as old as my mum, those who clearly were psychologically unstable, the sick and the pregnant ones, from all walks of life.
Our purpose was to get a bird’s eye view of their health status and conditions within the prisons. Of course, technically, none of them was healthy, as the World Health Organization (WHO), defines Health as being “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” So once your freedom is taken away, your social well-being is affected. With one exception, a pretty young woman I interviewed, who was full of smiles and seemed to be comfortable in prison. She’s 23, and had been given a 10 year sentence 5 years ago. My heart sank, but had to stay on course. I spoke with was a four month old pregnant married woman who was certainly going to deliver in prison due to the kind of sentence she had been given. Next, was a suspected HIV positive prisoner — I say suspected because I was not given any medical proof but rather word of mouth by one officer. She had also delivered 3 months ago with the police by her side after being sentenced to do 9 years, out of which she had done only four months. She was emaciated, looked sick and had only breastfed her baby for two months until her mother came for the baby. Had she transmitted HIV to her baby through breastfeeding? That, as you know, I cannot tell, but she most probably would die in prison without any ARV's. By the way, research in this regard confirms HIV transmission through breastfeeding is very minimal except when done with mixed feeding. So pediatricians in Ghana actually advise HIV positive mothers to still stick to exclusive breastfeeding for at least three months. That’s another topic of its own, which I’d blog about, later on.
But my main reason for this short post today is to expound on how much of a blessing it is, to be free. Freedom is an asset. Let us guard it jealously. Let us thank our God for our freedom today. I kept thinking about these convicted and remand prisoners overnight. Don’t be ungrateful. If for nothing at all, you’re a free man or woman. You might be broke, sick, stressed, disappointed, etc, but you’re FREE!!! Thank God today.
My name is Emmanuel Asare and I thank God I'm a free man!!!
