Prisoners to join National Sanitation Day exercise

The National Sanitation Day Exercise has finally found feet to stand on and to get it walking, a proposal has been submitted to the Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service to allow inmates join in the campaign of keeping Ghana clean.

The Minister in charge of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Julius Debrah made this call when he visited Mrs. Matilda Baffour Awuah at the Headquarters of the Prisons Service.

According to the minister, heaps of debris is usually left about after clean up exercises and to cut the practice down, the entire nation would appropriate if the prison officers supervised inmates to clear the leftovers.

Hon. Julius Debrah added that sustenance fees would be paid to the Prison Service for the services prisoners render.

In responding to this, the Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service Mrs. Baffour Awuah, stated that for some time now, the service has been moving away from being a punitive administration to a receptive home of grooming prisoners to be responsible citizens.

She stated that one fundamental regulation of the service is that prisoners are required to work eight hours per day; which includes carrying of water, hacking of woods and stone and performing community services.

But the Director General reveals that for some time, the practice has gone down and believes their engagement in the National Sanitation Day exercise would revive it.

A council member of the Prisons Service, who is also the President of the Ghana Medical Association graced the occasion and shared his view.

Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Adusei was of the view that since some inmates were specialized carpenters, masons, sculptures, waste managers etc., they should be used in related areas to profit the nation.

He also spoke on the health needs of the inmates and charged the service to emulate other security forces who have managed to build their own hospitals.