“15 cedis transport allowance given to prisoners when they are released needs review” -Crime Check boss Ibrahim Oppong

Ghana Crimes

The Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, has called on the government to review the GH¢15 transport allowance given to some prisoners when they are released, saying the amount is too small to get many of them back to their home communities.

Speaking on The Law with Samson Lardy on Sunday, 8 November 2026, Mr Kwarteng described the allowance as woefully inadequate and said it did not reflect the different distances former inmates have to travel.

He said the shortfall sometimes leads released prisoners to steal on the journey home. “In the course of their journey, some of them steal on the way because the (GH¢15) will not take them to their hometown. It is not intentional stealing, but they want to see how they can get back to their journey,” he said, as quoted by.

Asked by the host whether the Ghana Prisons Service gives released inmates GH¢15 to cover transport home, Mr Kwarteng replied: “Yes, as transport.” GhanaCrime has not independently confirmed the current allowance with the Ghana Prisons Service.

Mr Kwarteng also referred to an increase in prisoners’ feeding allowance from GH¢1.80 to GH¢15 and suggested the transport allowance should be revisited in the same way. He said his foundation’s work with former inmates had produced several accounts of people turning to theft after finding they could not pay the rest of their fares, and blamed the problem partly on inadequate planning for reintegration, warning that it could undermine efforts to reform offenders.

The reports reviewed by GhanaCrimes did not include a response from the Ghana Prisons Service or the government, or indicate whether any review of the allowance is under consideration.