Ghanaian prisoners to get university degrees

Ghana’s major universities are preparing to make life behind a prison cell worth living.

This innovation will see inmates upgrade their academic qualification through a distance learning program offered by the University of Education, Winneba, University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast.

Chief public relations officer of the prisons, Superintendent Vitalis Ayeh revealed in an interview the program will see all qualified inmates given the opportunity to up their educational qualifications.

”We are in talks with the Universities of Ghana, Cape Coast, and [Education], Winneba to extend their services to the Prison Service of Ghana so that these inmates who have qualified to enter university but because they are serving in the prison and cannot go to the university [can profit].”

He adds, “they can benefit from the distance education system and they can come out better off, we have done that.”

“It hasn’t started yet, but I believe that where it has gotten to, very soon we‘ll have distance learning in our prisons,” he stated.

This development follows concerns raised by some civil society organizations over the poor quality of living in the prison services.