British High Commission donates to Prisons Service

As part of efforts to strengthen criminal justice administration in the country, the British High Commission has donated technological equipment to the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) to help improve data management in correctional facilities across the country.

The items donated included two database servers, 45 workstations (monitors, base units, ups, and keyboards), 45 biometric fingerprint readers, 45 webcams and 45 printers.

The equipment are expected to support the establishment of an electronic case management system (ECMS) for the Prisons Service.

These were contained in a press statement issued by the Commission in Accra, yesterday.

According to the statement, the donation follows a 2018 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Commission and the GPS.

The statement said the donation was part of a GH¢ 2.5 million commitment, aimed at substituting the manual system of record keeping with a more efficient electronic system.

The ECMS which was developed by Axiom International-UK in close consultation with the IT department of the service would be deployed across all the prisons estates in Ghana to capture the biodata of prisoners and safeguard proper data management.

Additionally, it said the Commission, in March organised a two-week training workshop on human rights and prisons management to 180 officers, in order to enhance their skills in modern prisons management techniques and human rights.

According to the statement the training which was facilitated by Axiom International was in line with the commission’s capacity building project for the Service.

“This training adds up to the numerous projects undertaken by the British High Commission for the Prisons Service and forms part of a four-stranded project to strengthen the institutional capacity and prisoner management of the GPS,” the statement said.

Mr Iain Walker, the British High Commissioner to Ghana in his remarks said, the donation marked a significant step in the migration of data from the manual system into the electronic format in Ghana’s Prisons.

He said the interconnectivity of the system across all 43 prisons estates in the country would make criminal data easily accessible for judicial, administrative and research purposes.

The High Commissioner also stressed on the need to nurture the partnership between the UK government and Ghana in order to enhance development for both countries.

Mr Sylvester Rabbles, Deputy Director of Prisons in charge of Operations, in his acceptance remarks said the equipment would not only support the easy gathering, storage and accessibility of data, but would also ensure the transfer of knowledge to 200 officers across all the prisons estates.

Commending the commission, Mr Rabbles noted that the innovation would go a long way to support the country’s criminal justice system.