By Panafrican.email News Desk
A new debate over the future of Ghana’s correctional system has emerged after former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, called for broader prison reforms, including the creation of designated private spaces where married inmates could spend time with their spouses.
The proposal has generated attention online, where some social-media posts have reduced the issue to the provocative headline that a Ghanaian politician “wants prisoners to have sex with their spouses once a month.”
The actual proposal is broader and more nuanced.
According to statements attributed to Wontumi and communicated through his spokesperson, Dr. Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, the former NPP regional chairman wants Ghana to consider regulated conjugal visits as part of a wider rehabilitation programme designed to protect family relationships and improve inmates’ psychological welfare. (GBC Ghana Online)
From punishment to rehabilitation
Wontumi’s proposal comes from his own experience inside Ghana’s correctional system.
On July 20, 2026, an Accra High Court sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labour after convicting him on illegal-mining-related offences connected to the Samreboi concession in Ghana’s Western Region. The court also imposed fines, with the custodial sentences ordered to run concurrently. (Ghana News Agency)
He was subsequently taken to Nsawam Medium Security Prison to begin serving his sentence. His legal team has pursued an appeal against the conviction. (Ghana News Agency)
Since entering custody, Wontumi has used his experience to raise questions about Ghana’s correctional infrastructure, inmate classification, healthcare, prison agriculture, officer welfare and family visitation.
His broader argument is that imprisonment should not simply remove people from society. It should prepare them to return to society.
That distinction is central to the prison reform debate.
What exactly is a conjugal visit?
A conjugal visit generally refers to a private, scheduled visit between an incarcerated person and their spouse or approved partner, under rules established by the correctional authority.
In jurisdictions where such programmes exist, private family visits can be designed to preserve marriages and family relationships while maintaining security and administrative controls.
Wontumi has proposed that Ghana explore dedicated facilities where married inmates could receive spouses and maintain family intimacy.
The proposal has been framed as part of rehabilitation rather than as an unrestricted right to sexual activity inside prisons.
According to recent reporting, he has argued that regulated family and conjugal visitation could help preserve marriages, reduce tensions and support the rehabilitation of inmates. (GBC Ghana Online)
Ghana does not currently provide conjugal visits
This is an important distinction.
Ghana already permits prisoners to receive visitors, but conjugal visits are not currently part of the country’s standard prison visitation system.
The Ghana Prisons Service’s published visitation procedures require visitors to apply, receive approval and undergo security screening before entering designated visiting areas. The Service currently lists visiting hours from Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, subject to its rules and restrictions. (Ghana Prisons Service)
Ghana’s existing legal framework provides for visits from relatives and friends, but does not establish a general right to private sexual visits.
Section 38 of the Prisons Service Act provides for prisoners under sentence to receive visits from friends or relatives, normally in the presence of a prison officer. (GhanaLegal)
The Ghana Prisons Service has previously acknowledged that the law does not provide for conjugal rights.
In comments reported by Graphic Online, the Service said that if Parliament enacted legislation providing for conjugal visits and the necessary facilities were established, the Service would be required to comply. (Graphic Online)
That makes Wontumi’s proposal primarily a policy and legislative question, rather than a change that has already taken place.
Why supporters say family contact matters
The argument behind conjugal visitation extends beyond sex.
Prisoners do not stop being parents, spouses, sons, daughters or members of communities when they are incarcerated.
Long periods of separation can place enormous pressure on marriages and families.
Children can grow up with limited contact with incarcerated parents. Spouses can face emotional, financial and social consequences. When prisoners eventually return to society, damaged family relationships can make reintegration more difficult.
Wontumi has therefore argued for facilities that would allow spouses and children to maintain meaningful relationships with incarcerated family members.
His wider proposal calls for Ghana’s correctional system to place greater emphasis on rehabilitation, welfare and reintegration. (GBC Ghana Online)
Ghana already recognises the importance of family contact
The idea of maintaining family relationships is not completely foreign to Ghana’s prison system.
The Ghana Prisons Service allows family visitation, while Ghana has also acknowledged the need for better facilities for meaningful family interaction.
A United Nations document containing Ghana’s response on implementation of international human-rights obligations notes that organised family visits involving spouses and children are allowed, while also acknowledging shortcomings in facilities where children can interact meaningfully with incarcerated parents. (Digital Library)
The issue, therefore, is not whether prisoners should have contact with their families.
They already do.
The more controversial question is whether Ghana should go further and create private family and conjugal facilities for eligible married prisoners.
Security would be the major challenge
Any conjugal-visit programme would have to address serious security questions.
Prison authorities would have to determine:
- Who qualifies for private visits?
- Would only legally married spouses qualify?
- How frequently could visits occur?
- How long could they last?
- Where would the visits take place?
- How would visitors be screened?
- What medical safeguards would be required?
- What happens when a prisoner violates prison rules?
- Would remand prisoners qualify?
- Would prisoners convicted of violent or sexual offences be treated differently?
- How would children visiting parents be protected?
There would also be infrastructure costs.
Dedicated rooms or family units would have to be constructed, staffed and monitored without compromising the privacy that makes such programmes meaningful.
That means the proposal would require more than simply announcing a new visitation policy.
It would require legislation, regulations, funding, infrastructure and detailed administrative guidelines.
Wontumi wants broader prison reform
The conjugal-visit proposal is only one part of a much larger reform agenda.
Wontumi has also called for a dedicated modern prison hospital, better healthcare, improved welfare and salaries for prison officers, better classification of inmates, expanded prison agriculture and modern correctional facilities.
He has argued that prisoners should be separated according to the nature and seriousness of their offences and that rehabilitation should become a central objective of incarceration. (GBC Ghana Online)
He has also called on Parliament to take a leading role in prison reform, including consideration of a new Prison Reform Act.
The proposal therefore places conjugal visitation inside a much larger question:
What should a modern African prison actually be designed to accomplish?
The bigger African question
A proposed framework to modernise Ghana’s correctional system.
Former NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako,
popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has called on Parliament
to develop and pass a new Prison Reform Act.
His proposal includes healthcare, rehabilitation, inmate
classification, prison agriculture, officer welfare and
regulated family and conjugal visitation.
Establish a dedicated, modern prison hospital with
appropriate emergency medical infrastructure.
Create designated spaces where inmates can maintain
meaningful contact with spouses and children under
regulated conditions.
Shift the correctional system beyond punishment toward
counselling, skills development and reintegration.
Improve classification according to offence, security
risk and rehabilitation needs.
Expand agricultural programmes and provide equipment
to increase food production and vocational training.
Improve salaries, accommodation, working conditions
and institutional support for prison officers.
Wontumi has proposed designated private areas for
regulated visits involving spouses and children,
arguing that preserving family relationships can
support rehabilitation and reduce tensions.
Reform recommendations are presented to Parliament. A bill would need to be formally prepared and introduced. The bill would undergo parliamentary scrutiny and debate.
Only after the required legislative process could
the proposed reforms become law.
Ghana Prison Reform Act
Healthcare
Family Visitation
Rehabilitation
Inmate Classification
Prison Agriculture
Officer Welfare
Conjugal & Family Visits
Across Africa, prisons frequently face overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, limited rehabilitation programmes, infrastructure shortages and insufficient resources.
The traditional model of imprisonment can become heavily focused on confinement and punishment, while rehabilitation receives fewer resources.
But if the ultimate objective is public safety, rehabilitation matters.
A prisoner eventually returns to society.
The question is whether that person returns with stronger family relationships, employable skills, psychological support and a realistic pathway toward reintegration—or whether imprisonment has deepened the conditions that contributed to offending in the first place.
This is where the Ghanaian debate becomes larger than the question of sex.
Could Ghana actually introduce conjugal visits?
Potentially—but not simply through an announcement by a politician.
Ghana’s existing prison framework would need to be examined, and Parliament or the appropriate authorities would need to establish a clear legal basis and regulations.
The Ghana Prisons Service itself has previously indicated that conjugal visitation would require legal provision and appropriate facilities. (Graphic Online)
If Ghana eventually adopted such a system, it would likely need strict eligibility requirements and security procedures.
The objective would not be to turn prisons into hotels.
It would be to determine whether controlled private family contact can contribute to rehabilitation without compromising institutional security.
The social-media headline versus the real debate
The viral headline—“Ghanaian politician wants prisoners to have sex with spouses once a month”—is designed to provoke an immediate reaction.
But the actual policy discussion is considerably more substantial.
Wontumi is calling for Ghana to consider regulated private family and conjugal visitation as one component of a broader prison-reform programme.
Whether one agrees with the proposal or not, it raises legitimate questions about the purpose of incarceration.
Should imprisonment be primarily about punishment?
Should it be about rehabilitation?
Can preserving a prisoner’s marriage make successful reintegration more likely?
Can family contact reduce the damage incarceration causes to children and spouses?
And, ultimately, can Ghana build a correctional system that protects society while also preparing prisoners to return to it?
Those questions deserve a national debate based on evidence rather than viral headlines.
Panafrican Perspective
Ghana’s prison debate is part of a much larger African conversation about justice, rehabilitation and human dignity.
A modern correctional system must protect victims and communities while recognising that incarceration is not necessarily the end of a person’s social existence.
The prisoner may be behind bars—but the family remains outside them.
That may be the strongest argument behind the proposal.
Leave a Reply