Ghana Prisons Service To Get 2 Hospitals

Ambrose Dery in a group photograph with directors and personnel of the Ghana Prisons Service

Plans are underway for the government to construct two hospitals to cater for the health needs of inmates and personnel of the Ghana Prisons Service (GHS).

Interior Minister Ambrose Dery who revealed this said one of the hospitals will be situated in the northern part of the country, while the other one will also be built to serve personnel and inmates in the southern part of the country.

He has, therefore, charged the officials of the Ghana Prisons Service to furnish the ministry, regions and areas where the two hospitals should be built.

Mr Dery stated this when he made his first working visit to the Ghana Prisons Service headquarters in Accra to acquaint himself with the service.

With him were Deputy Interior Minister Henry Quartey and the Chief Director of the Ministry of Interior, Adelaide Annor-Kumi.

He said the Ghana Prisons Service is an important and indispensible agency in making good the mandate of the ministry.

“We are all working towards in making the Prison Service a modern one and for inmates that will come out from custody to be better people,” he stated.

He disclosed that there was the need to do something about pre- trial detection to reduce custodial sentences as part of efforts of decongestion the prisons.

Touching on the training of personnel, Mr Dery said government would do its best to provide training for, as well as providing decent accommodation for personnel.

The Acting Director General of Prisons Service, Patrick Darko Missah, said the main mandate of the service is to provide safe, secure and human custody of prisoners committed into the prisons by the various courts of competent jurisdiction within the country.

“In doing this, the service has the arduous task of meeting the varied welfare needs of the inmates under its charge,” Mr Darko Missah pointed out.

He said the quest for modern and best practices in correctional management has caused a total evolution of the functions of the service.

“As such, the thought of merely warehousing prisoners has given way to a more vibrant pursuit to reform and rehabilitating them while they are still in custody,” Mr Darko Missah mentioned.

Touching on education in prisons, he said the service was in contact with the authorities of the University of Ghana to allow inmates who sat and passed the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to continue with their tertiary education.

“Five of the inmates presented passed the examination with best grades and needed to further their education,” he revealed.

He said the various 43 prisons across the country currently have total inmates of about 13,036, which are made up of 12, 873 males and 163 females.

“It is also important to report that these numbers of inmates nationwide are being manned by a total strength of 5,377 officers who are often stressed in managing this high number of inmates,” Mr Darko Missah disclosed.

Sylvester K.B Rabbles, Director in-charge of Operations and Agriculture, who took the minister through the state of the Ghana Prisons Service, stated that “some of the challenges facing inmates in the various prisons are overcrowding, poor ventilation and sanitation, prolonged pretrial detentions and others, while for the women we lack facility for pregnant women and babies in prisons, feeding for babies in prisons ante-natal and post-natal challenges, among others.

In addition, he continued that the Ghana Prisons Service needs arms and ammunitions, prison armouries and bullet proof vests to better boost their operational and riot combat equipment to deal with prison emergencies and prisoner transfers.

On agriculture, the director in-charge of operations pointed out that inmates engage in agriculture to support their feeding needs in prisons while others are supported after completing their sentences.

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By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey