Be Patriotic in the discharge of your duties – Ayawaso West MP admonishes new prison officers

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon and Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Hon. Lydia Seyram Alhassan has admonished newly commissioned prison officers to be patriotic in the discharge of their duties to mother Ghana.

According to her, they have a duty to treat prisoners with care, respect and decency, without compromising their professional ethics.

She made the call when she joined the Vice President of the Republic, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to grace the graduation ceremony of the Ghana Prisons Service officers.

The graduation of the 28th intake was presided over by the Director-General of Prisons Service, DGP Patrick Darko Missah at Borstal Institute in Accra.

Interacting with the new officers, Hon. Lydia Seyram Alhassan encouraged them and indicated that the Government is committed to improving the human resource of the Prison Service and hence the expansion of its manpower base.

According to her, some two thousand, nine hundred and fifty (2,950) recruits and three hundred (300) cadets have been enlisted within four years of NPP’s administration.

On his part, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in his address, reiterated the government's commitment to continue its capacity-building programme for the Ghana Prisons Service.

Dr. Bawumia emphasized interventions the Akufo-Addo government has been making in the past four years towards improving the capacity of the Service, especially in the expansion of personnel, infrastructure, as well as welfare, and stressed that government is mindful of challenges confronting the Ghana Prisons Service and that it has been taking necessary steps since 2017 to address some of these challenges.

He said: "Government is also upgrading all health facilities in the prisons, to make them more responsive to the health needs of officers and inmates. Currently, the infirmary at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison has been elevated to the status of a District Hospital, whilst those at the Ankaful Maximum Security, Kumasi Central and the Koforidua prisons, have also been elevated to clinics."

"Government will continue to work closely with the Service to develop the capacity of prison officers, and to enable them perform their duties in accordance with international standards, which are of great concern to the Ghanaian people," he said.

One hundred and ninety-eight (198) men and women of the Officer Cadet Course Intake 28 were commissioned into the Senior Officer Corps of the Ghana Prisons Service and the Vice President urged them to continually justify the confidence reposed in them in the discharge of their duties.