The Ghana Prisons Service cannot give out condoms to gay prisoners to practice safe sex as part of its prisons HIV/AIDS education campaign, though the service admits that some inmates engage in homosexual activities under the cover of darkness. This is because coitus between two people of the same sex, in itself, is officially illegal under Ghana law, an official of the service has said. "Homosexuality is a crime, so giving out condoms to inmates will mean endorsing their unlawful sexual activities, the Co-ordinator of the Ghana Prisons Service HIV/AIDS Control Programme, Superintendent Francis Hagbe, pointed out in an interview with The Mirror. That, he said, would be in contravention of Chapter Six of the Criminal Code, 1960. "In addition to the state's laws, the Prison Service also has regulations, procedures and sanctions on homosexual acts. Those found guilty may forfeit their remission". "For instance, if one is sentenced to a one-year prison term, it means one will be in prison for eight months, according to prison regulations, but if one is caught engaging in homosexual acts, one may serve all the 12 months of the year," he said. The service uses dummy penis and condoms, Superintendent Hagbe said, to illustrate safe sex to the inmates. "The sex education campaign is meant to help them to practice safe sex when they leave the prison". For heterosexuals, (those who are inclined to having sex with partners of the opposite sex), whose sexual activities are not frowned upon by the state, the law does not allow their partners to visit them in jail, because prisoners in Ghana do not have conjugal rights (the freedom to have coitus with an adult partner the opposite sex). Superintendent Hagbe explained that the issue of conjugal rights had come up for discussion at an AIDS advocacy workshop for Directors and Regional Commanders of the Prison Service, but no concrete decisions had been taken yet. "Even if the laws were changed to allow prisoners to enjoy conjugal rights, the Prison Service may not have the facilities to accommodate inmates and their visiting spouses to have intercourse". The Minister of State at the Ministry of The Interior, Nana Obiri Boahene, in a telephone interview, said in spite of the spread of HIV in jails, "Ghana had not reached a stage where prisoners could be made to enjoy conjugal rights". He also added that he was not aware that prisoners engaged in homosexual activities. "But assuming, without admitting that is true," then that is also against the law" In any case, he said, prisoners, by virtue of their incarceration, forfeit certain rights and, "personally, I do not think that they should have sex in jail". "It is like saying that because people are visiting brothels, we should legalise prostitution," he noted. The Regional Coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Africa Office, Nana Oye Lithur, said the issue of HIV/AIDS and homo sexuality in Ghana's prisons needed serious attention and advocated that Prisoners should be allowed conjugal visits when the Prisons Service got to a point where they could facilitate that. With feeding problems and overcrowding in the jails, she said it might be difficult to insist that prisoners be made to enjoy their conjugal rights. A prison source told The Mirror that some prisoners engaged in "blood brotherhood" to protect their "partners in crime" who managed to escape arrest and conviction. This, they do, by cutting themselves and sucking each other's blood thus, exposing themselves to HIV infection. Others sharpened spoons and other metals at their disposal and used them as tools to tattoo their bodies. It is also very common for prisoners to share razor blades and other sharp items. All these exposed them to the disease. Meanwhile, HIV/AIDS still remains the number one killer of prisoners in Ghana. In 2002, it accounted for 22 out of the 125 deaths recorded, (about 17.5 per cent). In 2005, 27 out of 111 deaths (24.3 per cent) were caused by HIV/AIDS, while the 2007 Ghana Prisons Service Annual Report indicated that 13 out of the 98 deaths recorded (13.3 per cent) were as a result of HIV/AIDS. Superintendent Hagbe stressed that HIV/AIDS in the prisons had put inmates at risk and entreated the rest of society to join the education campaign "to meet the huge challenge before us". Other opportunistic diseases that devour HIV/AIDS patients, such as tuberculosis, anaemia, malaria, hepatitis and pneumonia are also persistently infecting prisoners. The 2007 Report indicates that these diseases, respectively, claimed 12, seven, six, one and six lives last year. According to Superintendent Hagbe, presently testing inmates for HIV/AIDS before they are admitted into the prisons is not compulsory, neither is it mandatory to test them before they are discharged, thus making it difficult to know the actual number of HIV AIDS cases in the country's jails at any given time. "It is only when they show symptoms of the disease that they may get tested." The service, he said, was therefore encouraging the inmates to patronise the counselling and testing services that were provided as part of the HIV/AIDS programme. The service has also trained the leadership of the inmates who are appointed according to their good conduct to serve as HIV and AIDS peer educators. These peer educators include cell leaders, black coats (title for a respected group of cell leaders) and national leaders (another group of "senior prisoners") who create awareness about risky behaviors in jail, vis-à-vis HIV and AIDS. "The Prisons Service provides anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive inmates as well as other health care services. We also use print and audio-visual materials to create awareness about the disease," the HIV/AIDS Control Programme Co-ordinator said. The inmates, he said, also benefited from the Presidential Special Initiative on Distant Learning, under which they received some formal education to enable them take informed decisions on issues, including sex. To give them entertainment that may keep their minds off sex and also give them the opportunity to learn more about HIV and AIDS, the service has provided television sets in the jails. The Ghana Prisons AIDS Control Programme is run with funds from the Multi-Sectoral HIV/AIDS Programme (M-SHAP), a component of the Ghana AIDS Commission and the National AIDS Control Programme of the Ghana Health Service . Source: The Mirror