A/HRC/31/57/Add.2 need to live up to the standards articulated in the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules). The Special Rapporteur particularly welcomes the Strategic Plan’s comprehensive and holistic approach to reform, which identifies the need for improvement in the Service’s organizational structure, human resource management, strategic planning and policy implementation measures, as well as vast improvement in conditions of services and training for staff. Additional measures requiring significant improvement include methods for the classification of prisoners; nutrition; and educational and work opportunities, including vocational training. Reforms of aspects of the criminal justice system will be essential to reduce and manage overcrowding, decongest prisons, and improve detention conditions and the treatment of prisoners. Greater cooperation between the Ministries of Justice and of the Interior, the courts, the Police Service, and the GPS, and the Social Welfare Department under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, is required to facilitate the implementation of reforms and alleviate the plight of prisoners. 35. The Special Rapporteur has learned of the launch of Project Efiase, which aims to solicit financial support, donations, and partnerships from stakeholders in the private sector, civil society, and the diplomatic community, in view of the fact that “Government alone cannot solve all the challenges confronting the GPS, which have been compounding since colonial times from one administration to another.”3 While the Special Rapporteur welcomes the fundraising initiative as a useful means of generating income and capacity to supplement Governmental allocations, he emphasizes that the Government retains sole responsibility for the treatment of prisoners under international law, including living conditions and the provision of services in detention. He encourages non-Governmental stakeholders to offer support and fruitfully engage in partnerships with the Government through Project Efiase. E. Conditions of Detention 36. The In the Nsawam medium security prison (men’s section), which has a 750 – 800 person capacity, the Special Rapporteur found a total of 3,449 inmates (2,875 convicted, 297 on remand, and 126 in death row), at a staggering rate of 431% over capacity. Transfers of prisoners to the maximum security prison at Ankaful and to nearby open camp prisons have commenced recently, but appear to have had little or no impact in alleviating overcrowding. The follow-up visit could not ascertain the existence of efforts to identify low-risk prisoners in central prisons and relocate them to open and farm camp prisons, or to develop halfway houses, community-based restitution programmes, or work release centers. 37. The Special Rapporteur learned that authorities make an effort to separate detainees on remand from convicted prisoners into separate blocks, although extreme overcrowding and lack of adequate classification procedures often make separation impossible in practice. Plans for the building of a new remand block in 2016, while welcome, must not substitute for undertaking meaningful reforms to the criminal justice system, particularly as regards the situation of remand detainees. 38. The 126 inmates on death row are housed in a separate block and isolated from the rest of the population without access to the common yard. but they are permitted to move around freely within the block. Inmates in other blocks are permitted to mingle and have access to the yard for exercise. During the visit, on a Sunday, religious services were underway and appeared to be well-attended. Reports that the prison ministries and faith- 3 Ghana Prisons Service, Chairman Wengam Unveils Plans for a New Prison Service. 11