Life in prison: Maxwell Dankwa recounts his 8-year deal at Nsawam
“Life in Ghana prison is like living in hell. Apart from your freedom that is denied, the punishments from inmates are hard to receive,” Maxwell Dankwa, an ex-convict recounted his eight years of prison ordeal in an interview on the Active Morning Show on April 7, 2022.
According to him, the food given to them[prisoners] “is not food that can be eaten at home, it is food that is cooked by prison standard”.
“Life in prison is hard to live, the food given to us is not food that we eat at home, it is cooked based on prison standards, blended beans with oil are our palm nut soup, no fish or meat,” he recounted.
According to Maxwell, the state of the prisons in Ghana is a very disturbing scene to the eye, such that people are arranged like sardines making it difficult for others to breathe and to change sleeping positions. In his disclosure, Maxwell said, “you have to sleep at one side without turning yourself”.
On account of what sent Maxwell to prison without justice for eight years, the middle-aged young man who is now freed from prison said he was arrested for a crime he was unaware of. He said he was accused of defiling a 17-year old girl he called for a friend.
He added that he was the one the girl’s family was familiar with that was why they got him arrested in 2012 although it was his friend who had intercourse with the girl based on consensus.
“We went for a wake-keeping and my Togo friend told me to call the girl for him, after that, I Ieft them at the funeral grounds and went back home, and later I heard the girl whereabouts was unknown[Missing] and that led to my arrest.”
Maxwell said he was told at the court that, the girl has lost her womb, and therefore she can’t conceive or give birth again. The court based on that pronounced sixteen month remand period at the Nsawam prison for Maxwell with a subsequent 8-year jail term in 2013.
Maxwell was a final year Junior High School student before his arrest, he hopes to find something better to do. According to him, he is often tempted to participate in criminal acts just to enable him to feed but it is the fear of God that keeps him going.
He thus appealed for assistance to learn a trade or find a job in order to enable him to cater for himself.
