The Truth Shall Out

 

In the early 1940s it is said that a favored mode of identification for prisoners of the Holocaust was tattooing. Prisoners were marked with special metal stamps on the chest and indelible ink smeared into the still bleeding wounds. Later the tattoos were done with a single needle on the left forearm of the prisoner. Those prisoners condemned to the gallows did not go through this identification process; I guess there was no point wasting ink and effort if they were off to die.

I have to say if I was a prisoner then, I would have howled and pleaded like nobody’s business just to go to the gallows so I couldn’t possibly be advocating that such inhumane practices be visited on any prisoner. Fortunately though those dark days are long gone and prisoners can look forward to more dignifying identification procedures like say, thumb printing; taking a “castle style” shaving of the head, no cost incurred; posing for a mug shot; and indeed more recently simply pressing fingers to a machine which reads off personalized prints. In fact since 9/11 even dignitaries, the rich, business tycoons, the high and mighty, all of whom take themselves a tad too seriously have had no choice but to deliver their finger prints to some machine if they were to do what they do most – travel. And what’s my trouble? Simply, identification.

The biometric registration of some 13, 400 prisoners (by an April 2012 count) lodging in Ghanaian prisons was suspended and only recently resumed but chances are that the majority of these people are unlikely, indeed will not be registered due to anxieties about their “real” identities. Now that’s funny.

Many of the prisoners are said to have entered fake names and information about themselves at the time of incarceration so after all the excitement and frenzied preparations to register as voters in the upcoming December polls, they are suddenly in no hurry to register for fear of prosecution. To register is to be “obliged” to disclose their “real” identities to the state. A small matter that could be resolved with a presidential pardon if biometric registration of the inmates was thought to be important for a variety of reasons I would not even bore myself to enumerate. 

I thought it was precisely because of the need to collect unalterable, unchanging, non-transferable information about people– which to my mind does not include what people claim to be their names, place of birth, relations, where they live and so on and so forth - that the biometric registration became significant in the first place. Otherwise citizens and many others have been providing personal information supported by a variety of “authentic” documents for a really long time now. Why then does it matter if prisoner A says he’s called Ata (and even provides 2 partners in crime to vouch that) when indeed prisoner A is known as Apeto. The truth will out soon enough, and the truth is the biometric information and picture to match!

We started off with the national identification process which to all intents and purposes is a fiasco. That process did not have the benefit of biometric gadgets. Now that there are biometric equipment to capture the bona fide identity of persons, we are about to lose the opportunity because the exercise is tied to a 1-day voting event in which law breakers (by definition) are expected to provide authentic information. Terrific.

I think the collection of biometric information on all Ghanaians and residents should be an extension of the national identification exercise. Which means prisoners get through the process too whether they care to vote or not; after all they are not headed for the gallows. 

I’ll be very sore if the hundreds of prisoners, likely to receive presidential pardon in a few months, come out without leaving their prints. 

And while we are at it, our easily excitable brothers and sisters in psychiatric care should likely fall in line too. I doubt they’ll concern themselves with names, relations and addresses and Lord knows where I may meet a few when they are on vacation or have time out! 

Come to think of it, probably all prisons and police stations must have the biometric equipment as a matter of course.