Healthcare for Inmates: A Right or a Privilege?

Life happens differently for everyone of us if truth is being told. We started life at a young age with so many people but life happened to put all of us in different places, both good and bad. That’s why I say that the environment a child grows is plays a huge role in what he becomes in the future in one way or the other.

There are some people who had a bring future as kids. No one thought they’d end up as killers or sole community problem but situations led them to that and they’re spending the rest of their lives in jail for one wrong move they made in life. When we speak of jail, I always say that not everyone’s jail is guilty. Some of them just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are some series in Ghana that show us the lives of inmates in Ghanaian prisons and some of them even tell us the story of how they got there. Some are actually guilty and have pled guilty to their crimes and are turning a new leaf and then there’s those who were just victims being dragged into a whole lot of mess.

This is why I always say that sometimes it’s best to just sit at home because that will prevent you from so much trouble. The fact that someone is in prison doesn’t mean that we those out there are better than them. There are some people in the outside world who have commit more crimes than the entire population of people the prison. They just happen not to get caught. So, who are we to judge others. At the end of the day, we need to understand that they are also human and they deserve whatever we on the other end get to enjoy.

We are the same people that agreed to the laws that said those guilty of crimes should be secluded from others so they can change. And being secluded from others means literally not having a life, no ties with family, no money because there’s no source of income and nothing to rely on. So, how then do we expect them to care for themselves in there. Jail is a whole world on its own. It isn’t like the world we live in where we get to go wherever we want and do whatever we wish. There are restrictions and this alone should tell us that there’s no way they can fend for themselves in there especially financially.

If we want to keep killers, thieves, rapists and the likes from our communities, we should be ready to let a percentage of our taxes be invested in their care because as much as we think they’re bad,they are also human. And where is our humanity if we can’t even care for other humans. This is the least we can do for them, care for them as they turn a new leaf and come back into society as better people.

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all images belong to me.

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