Ghanaian Project turns Prisoners into Farmers PART 5 of 5 | Voice of America - English
    /*-->*/  /*-->*/  /*-->*/ In Ghana, a project aims to transform prisons into productive farms. It'll give inmates the inputs needed to start and sustain their own food production enterprises. They'll cultivate state land that's presently lying fallow, and farming experts will teach them skills to use when they're released from jail. The initiative could enable convicts to feed themselves as well as others in West Africa, and its success will ensure that Ghanaian prisons are no longer mere places of punishment.
Moses Kanduri's vision isclear, and lofty. "We want to turnprisons into agricultural ventures, to stop hunger in the region, to help theinhabitants fight high food prices," says the administrator of the West AfricanDevelopment Objective. The organization's based in Accra, the capital of Ghana,but also has offices in Benin and Nigeria. "Wepromote sustainable agriculture, and want to link up countries in West Africa to achieve our goals. Wealso connect local groups with international organizations with the aim oflearning more about improving agricultural practices in Africa," Kanduriexplains. He notes that the rationale behind his brainwave is"simple but ambitious." According to Kanduri's research, Ghana's governmentspends about US$ 80 million every financial year to feed 47,000 prisoners. "Our view is that thismoney could be better used elsewhere ? for poverty relief, for example ? andthat the prisoners should be given the means and the training that willeventually enable them to largely feed themselves." Kanduri plans the first oftwo pilot projects at a prison near the town of Nsawam in eastern Ghana, about40 kilometers from Accra. "Nsawam is known as thebreadbasket of Ghana. Women here bake a lot of bread, and then they sell it allday to people passing through the town in buses and cars on the way to Accra,"he tells VOA. Kanduri says his secondinitial project is to be located at a jail near the southwestern town ofKenyasi, in Ghana's Brong Ahafo region. "This is a gold miningarea, with a lot of fertile land that has yet to be used. The Ghana prisonservice owns a lot of the land there, and they have big prisons there." Kanduriacknowledges that prisons are usually places where people who've committedcrimes "are supposed to be "rehabilitated." Butin Ghana, he says, "little emphasis" is placed on this. "Prisons are places ofhard labor, where those incarcerated are punished with tilling the land, forexample, and other harsh treatment. The way prisons in Ghana presently operate,I believe, means they are not places that ultimately deter criminals fromcrime. The whole prison experience simply hardens them because of hard labor,"Kanduri emphasizes. "Wewant to change this system that hardly benefits anyone by giving the prisonersa financial interest in making sure their small farms are successful foodproducers," he attests. Kandurisays he's spoken to "many, many prisoners" as part of research ahead of theproject, and most are overwhelmingly in favor of it. He recalls one specificconversation with a man who was a multiple offender, having returned to prisonfor various crimes most of his life. "WhenI asked him why he'd been in and out of prison, what led to him to committingmore crimes after he'd been in jail, he told me that prison taught him nothing,that it gave him no skills that he could use when he was free. In fact," saysKanduri, "all it did was provide a place where he could meet up with fellowprisoners, where they'd pass the time by plotting new crimes. So when he wasreleased, he went out to implement the criminal plans. That's all he knew howto survive." Kanduri says his project will begin by selecting 200"enthusiastic" convicts at both prisons, and "getting them each access to anacre of state land." Following this, a team of agricultural consultants willtrain the chosen prisoners. "This training is going toinclude some kind of guidance and counseling that will set their minds straightthat the farming they will do is not a kind of punishment but it's kind ofrehabilitating them and giving them skills that will be helpful when they comeout of prison," he says. Kandurimaintains that he'll make sure the criminals "understand they're going to beowners of the project?. Simply put, the prisoners will be shareholders in the business venturesthat come about as a result of the project." Thedevelopment worker stresses that this is the "only way" to guarantee hisinitiative's success. "When somebody is owning aproject that he's going to benefit from, he's going to put all his efforts intoit!" he exclaims. Kandurihas planned for the prisoners to begin with maize production, "because about 80percent of Ghanaian food is made from maize?. But there are plans to get themto raise chickens, for eggs and poultry, soya beans and millet. We're going tobe targeting goods that have ready markets in West Africa." Hepredicts that at the end of the first season, the participants will cultivateabout 3,000 bags of maize and says half of the yield will "immediately" be given to theGhanaian prison service. "Thirty percent of it isgoing to go into direct feeding (of the prisoners) while 20 percent is going togo into paying the allowances of the prisoners that are working on these farms.Now the prisoners who are going to be working on these farms will have accountsthat we are going to open (for) them, in collaboration with (Ghana's)agri-development bank," Kanduri explains. He emphasizes that theprisoners will only be able to access monies when they're freed. "In this way,when they are released, they won't just simply enter a life of poverty, whichusually happens, but will have a fund on which they can rely temporarily." Even prisoners who are serving life sentences andwho decide to be part of his project will benefit from his plan, Kanduri tellsVOA. "Their families ? like spouses, children, mothers and fathers ? will bethe direct beneficiaries of his share. They will be joint signatories with theprisoner on the account." He says the remaining maizefrom the initial harvest will be "part of a business venture and will be soldto the general public, with the profit being ploughed back into the project tokeep it going." Kanduri acknowledges that"some people" may have "problems" with his efforts that appear aimed chiefly athelping prisoners ? some of whom have committed terrible crimes that areanathema to law-abiding societies. "I realize there may besome people who will tell me that there are better and more needy and deservingpeople for me to be helping," he says. But he requests such skeptics to "bearsomething in mind - this is not going to be an easy ride for the prisoners.They will be doing this project as their hard labor. They will be sweatingunder the sun," Kanduri stresses, and then adds, "Yes, it's true they'll belearning skills and building their capacity to survive once they're released,but I believe the advantages of this project are too great to ignore. And oneof those great advantages is that these otherwise unproductive people will begrowing cheaper food in a very poor area." Kanduri'sconvinced that prisoners everywhere shouldn't just "slave away" and be"outcasts." He wants "some public good" to emerge from the convicts'incarceration and his project, and he's certain this will happen in the formsof extra food for surrounding communities and prisoner rehabilitation. Hesays, "A prisoner may have done some bad things, but he or she is also a humanbeing. Convicts also deserve a second chance at building a good, law-abidinglife for themselves. They should not just be locked away and forgotten; theymust be given the chance to make something better of their lives and beencouraged not to commit further crimes." Kanduri insists, too, that projects such as his thatboost food production are essential to a region where he says the authoritiesare doing little to support agriculture. "(There's) little funding available to develop farming inWest Africa. Students are also not encouraged to study agriculture, with theresult that there are fewer and fewer skilled farmers and agriculturalists inthe region. But, even if they do study agriculture, you'll find that they can'tget work in their field of expertise," he explains. "These are people whoshould be producing food in a part of the world in serious need of as much foodas it can get, but they aren't. It's tragic." Kanduri says he's