Ghana Prisons Service to step up vocational training for inmates

The Ghana Prison Service is stepping up vocational skills training for prisoners to make them economically self-supporting after serving their term, the Ashanti Regional Commander, Mr Kwame Ackom Gyedu, has said.

He said to this effect the training workshops of the service were being expanded.

Mr Gyedu was speaking during the annual church service held for inmates of the Kumasi Central Prison by the Catholic Church.

He said the service had also intensified counselling of the prisoners to enable them to turn away from their bad ways and become fully integrated into the society.

Mr Gyedu said the major problem facing inmates was stigmatisation by members of the society, which was making it difficult for them to be accepted after completing their sentences.

“This tends to force them back into criminal activities,” he added.

The Regional Prisons Commander said the Service with support from the Department of Art Education, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology had prepared 35 inmates for the 2011 Basic Education Certificate Examination.

Twenty-five (25) others would also write the West African Senior Secondary Examination in November 2011.

He commended the Kumasi Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church for its regular visit to the prisons and said this has helped to change the lives of some of the inmates.

The Most Reverend Thomas Mensah, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kumasi, advised the inmates to be law-abiding and resist the temptations of the devil.

He said he found it deeply troubling that about 2,000 able-bodied men and women should be locked up in jail for choosing the path of unrighteousness.

Most Rev Mensah called on parents to ensure proper upbringing of their children to shield them from bad influence.

Source: GNA