The Police Service says it cannot be blamed for the congestion in the country's prisons, describing the situation as a systemic problem. In an interview on Tuesday in reaction to the Times frontpage story on the congestion at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, the Director-General in charge of Legal and Prosecutors, James Oppong-Boanuh, said the police were committed to respecting the rights of individuals and would never do anything to undermine their rights. Statistics made available to a delegation of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice on Monday during a visit to the Nsawam Prisons indicated a massive overcrowding dominated by with remand prisoners for which the police were partly blamed. "As an institution, we try to perform our duties to the best of our ability so that no person is deprived or unjustifiably treated against his or her right." Mr Oppong-Boanuh told the Times that the police were faced with a number of challenges including inadequate resources and personnel. There are only a few prosecutors who handle between 10 and 12 cases a day and so are investigators and vehicles to convey accused persons to court. “In instances, where there are no vehicles to convey suspects to and from the prisons, prosecutors use their own money for the purpose," he said. "The men are just not there and you cannot give any case to just anybody to handle." Mr Oppong-Boanuh said when suspects are kept on remand for more than the mandatory two weeks, the prison authorities could draw the attention of the police to the lapse. He said in the prisons there are records on suspects and if they are properly monitored, lapses such as over stay on remand can be detected and the issue addressed. On allegations that people on remand are virtually forgotten in the event of the death or transfer of prosecutors, Mr. Oppong-Boanuh said in such situations dockets on suspects are submitted to the prosecutors' office for action to continue. He said remand prisoners are not supposed to be kept for more than two weeks, even though sometimes the warrant may be extended based on the investigation process to enable the police to get to the bottom of the case. For instance, he said, if the case involves murder or robbery, the police would need to take time to thoroughly investigate the matter which is usually done by senior police officers. He explained that such cases do not attract bail and advised the public to distinguish between these and other offences. "The Police, the Prison Service and the Judiciary need public help and cooperation to address such issues," he added. Mr Oppong-Boanuh -said the Police Service has instituted a number of training programmes for its prosecutors and investigators to build a strong relation between them and the judiciary. Source: Times/Ghana