NewsWontumi's prison reform list, and the record behind it
After 100 days at Nsawam, the jailed former NPP Ashanti chairman wants a prison hospital and private family visits. Most of his list has been asked for before, some of it since 2008.
Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the former NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman known as Chairman Wontumi, has put out a 12-point plan for Ghana's prisons. His spokesperson, Dr Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, issued it on Tuesday 27 October to mark 100 days in custody.
Who is asking
Wontumi was elected Ashanti Regional Chairman in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 and 2022. For eight of those years, 2017 to 2025, his party was in government. On 20 July 2026 the Accra High Court convicted him over illegal mining on the Akonta Mining concession at Samreboi in the Western Region and sentenced him to 20 years with hard labour. He has appealed, and a ruling on bail pending appeal is due on 4 November. The NPP calls him a political prisoner.
The list
The statement asks for a dedicated prison hospital, with the 37 Military and Police hospitals covering in the meantime; ambulances and generators; minor offenders kept apart from armed robbers; better pay and housing for prison officers; a policy on LGBTQI+ inmates; equipment for prison farms; and a new Prison Reform Act. It also calls for private spaces where inmates can receive their spouses and children, with regulated conjugal visits. "The prisoner is the one in prison, not the children or spouse," it says.
Headlines this week described the proposal as "monthly" conjugal visits. The statement does not give a frequency.
The record
Food. For about 15 years the state allocated ₵1.80 per prisoner per day for three meals. The Mahama government approved ₵5 in September 2025. At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on 30 September 2025, the Director-General of Prisons said the funds had not yet been released.
Space. In January 2024 Ghana's prisons held 14,916 people against an authorised capacity of 10,265. In September 2026 the Prisons Service put the population at about 13,000, still 23% over capacity. Nsawam Medium Security Prison, where Wontumi is held, was built for 850. When President Akufo-Addo commissioned a reformation camp there in October 2022, it held 3,187, according to the Church of Pentecost, which built the camp.
A hospital. The Prisons Council called for a prison hospital in 2016. In 2022 the retiring Ashanti Regional Prisons Commander, Samuel Yaw Tannor, made the same call. There is still no national prison hospital.
Private visits. In September 2008, Nana Obiri Boahen, Minister of State at the Interior Ministry in President Kufuor's NPP government, told the Daily Graphic that the state only needed "special places or centres" where prisoners could spend some hours with their partners once a month. He asked Parliament to debate it. The Prisons Service has since said Ghana's laws make no provision for conjugal visits. An NGO pushed for them again in 2022.
QMS could not find a statement from Wontumi on prison conditions before 2026. As of March 2026, 1,745 of the 13,620 people in Ghana's prisons were on remand, waiting for trial.
The Chairman is right about the prisons, just twelve years late. If his list is good, it has to be good for the young man who stole a phone, not only for the Chairman. And the NPP should say where this list was from 2017 to 2024.
- Ghanaian Times: Dr Palgrave calls for prison hospital, conjugal visits and reforms (27 Oct 2026)
- Adom Online: Wontumi proposes prison hospital, officers' welfare and a Prison Reform Act; Peter Toobu backs the call (28 Oct 2026)
- MyJoyOnline: Wontumi applies for bail pending appeal (7 Aug 2026); Treasury delay traps prison funds (12 Oct 2025)
- ModernGhana: bail ruling adjourned to 4 November
- GhanaWeb and Graphic Online: prison feeding fee raised from GH¢1.80 to GH¢5 (Sep 2025)
- GBC: Ghana's prisons 23% over-congested with about 13,000 inmates (8 Sep 2026)
- Ghana News Agency: Nsawam reformation camp commissioned (23 Oct 2022); "Build a prisons hospital" (31 Oct 2022); remand population (Mar 2026)
- Daily Graphic, 10 Sep 2008, p.31 (via the reporter's blog): Minister calls for debate on prisoners' conjugal visits
- Graphic Online and MyJoyOnline: Prisons Service says the law makes no provision for conjugal visits
Every factual line in this story is checked against at least two independent sources, unless the text says it comes from one report.