The 2023 annual data on the state of Ghana Prisons has revealed shocking stage of overcrowding among others details.

The data revealed Ghana’s prisons are overcrowded by 4,651 inmates as the total prison population was 14,916, nearly 45% more than the “normal” capacity of 10,265.

The Data from the Ghana Pris­ons Service show that inmates comprised 14,732 males and 184 females.

Convict prisoners constitute 88.56 per cent of inmate pop­ulation of 13,210, made up of 13,053 males and 157 females.

Remand prisoners are 1,245; comprising 1,230 males and 15 females, while trial prisoners are 461 made up of 449 males and 12 females.

In the ‘special category’, 180 persons are on death row, includ­ing six females; 88, including one female, on life sentence; 215 male juveniles at correctional centres; and 919 foreigners, made up of 871 males and 48 females in pris­on.

Due to the reports of overcrowding in the prisons, there has been a new private member’s bill to amend the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30) to introduce an alternative sentencing regime for misdemeanours.

Sponsored by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Fran­cis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, the bill was presented to the Clerk to Parlia­ment on December 12 last year.

It is aimed at introducing com­munity service and bond of good behaviour as alternatives to the traditional custodial sentences and fines for petty crimes, generally re­ferred to as misdemeanours, where such offences are not already specified by law.