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04.10.2018 Regional News

Remand Prisoners In Tamale Get Support

By GNA
Remand Prisoners In Tamale Get Support
04.10.2018 LISTEN

A Tamale-based NGO, CSD Reform has presented used clothing to the inmates of the Tamale Central Prisons as means of helping alleviate their plight.

The presentation was under CSD's 'Harnessing Opportunities for Prison Ex-convicts' (HOPE Project), a two-year (2018 to 2020) pilot project, which aims among others, to help decongest prisons and also provide economic and social support benefits targeted at remand prisoners and ex-convicts in Tamale and its environs.

Mr David Issaka, the Executive Director of CSD Reform outlined the activities of CSD to the Northern Regional Command of the Ghana Prisons Service and assured of regular support and other intended intervention to help the inmates.

Mr Issaka said under the HOPE Project, CSD Reform would provide legal services to remand prisoners and ex-convicts and sensitize their families and communities to accept them as a means to facilitating their reintegration into society.

He said the sensitization programme would be carried out on the local radio stations with the support of the Prisons Service who will provide officers to serve as Resource Persons.

He indicated that the Project would also provide remand prisoners and ex-convicts with counselling and psycho-social services as well as business advisory services with the support of the Technical and Vocational Unit of the Prisons Service, the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) and the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) to give the beneficiaries a decent means of livelihood.

Mr Issaka explained that the roll out of the HOPE Project during the pilot phase will cover only remand prisoners and ex-convicts in and around the Tamale Metropolis and expressed the hope that it will be scaled up to cover the whole of the three regions in the northern in the next phase.

Mr Simon Adzah, the Acting Regional Commander described the presentation of the items as a timely intervention, and indicated that the Regional Command will seek clearance and directives from their superiors to ensure a successful implementation of the project.

The HOPE Project, which is funded by Misereor, a Germany-based Catholic funding agency, will be formerly launched in Tamale on October 09, 2018.

Out of the total of 236 prisoners currently at the Tamale Central Prison, 128 are convicts while 100 are remand prisoners and the rest falls into other categories of prisoners.

The HOPE Project is a social inclusion and an economic justice project being implemented by CSD Reform; a non-governmental organization based in Tamale, which is working to ensure that the legal, economic and social rights of excluded and marginalized groups are protected through integrated project initiatives. The primary constituents for the HOPE project are prison inmates (remand) and released prisoners living in and around Tamale.

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