New trick: Criminals use psychiatric hospitals as escape route

• Posted on July 4, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Accra psychiatric hospital, a facility built to care for the mental health needs of Ghanaians, has become an escape route for suspected criminals many of who have been sent there on the orders of the court for mental examination.

Weekend Finder can report that, the ‘inmates’ many of who were on trial for drug related offenses, murder and assault often fain mental illness during their trail a situation which forces the prosecutors to recommend that they were sent to the mental home for examination only for them  to escape thereafter.

The paper gathered that last year alone, a total of 20 inmates who were committed to the hospital for examination before their trial continued absconded from the facility.

Robert Gyedu- Amakye, the In-Charge at the Special Ward at the Accra Psychiatric hospital where these ‘criminals’ were kept said about 90 percent of the ‘inmates’ who absconded during trial were involved in drug related cases.

The paper also gathered that mostly, cases that are referred to the psychiatric hospital were nothing but a carefully choreographed plan between the accused standing trial and their lawyers to act funny at the court and based on that their lawyers plead for their clients to access medical care.

Mr Gyedu- Amakye said the phenomenon has become very common due to the lack of interest on the part of prosecutors to continue cases that were referred to the psychiatric hospitals.

Additionally, there was no police protection at the ward in which they were housed at the mental hospital to ensure that they do not escape.

He explained that once an individual was in the care of the hospital, he or she was treated as a patient and not as a criminal.

“As soon as they are brought here, we see them as patients so we treat them as such, we leave the criminal aspect for the court to decide “, he said.

He added that even at the mental hospital, the patients have rights to refuse medication and treatment and many of them who have such plans of escaping often refuse medication.

He said it becomes very obvious that patients who fain mental illness who were brought to the facility begin to act exceptionally normal only a day after taking their medication. In some cases they refuse medication.

Escape plans and routes

Weekend Finder observed during a visit to the Special Ward of the Hospital that a number of escape routes have been created by the inmates with the major ones being a vent created in the roof at the entrance of the facility’s bathroom which leads outside the walls of the facility.

The paper was informed that ‘inmates’ who have spent years at the facility often facilitate the escapes of new ‘inmates’ for a fee.

Some of the ‘inmates’ opt to be used as ladders to help their colleagues to scale the wall of the facility.

Again, two huge poly tanks used for storing  water for the ‘inmates’ is also said to be one of the ‘ladders’  the escapees use in escaping from the facility.

Authorities at the hospital say the best way to solve the situation is for police prosecutors who send suspects to the facility to provide the needed protection so suspects do not use the facility as an avenue to escape trial.

By: Daniel NONOR,Accra