Director of the Ghana Prisons Service, Madam Matilda Baffour-Awuah has said the rejection and stigmatization of ex-convicts by society should end to aid their reformation.
She also stated that ex-convicts must be made to feel wanted to prevent them from going back to their bad ways.
She said this in an address read on her behalf at the dedication of the Saint Martin’s Prison Catholic Church in Kumasi.
The church, located at the South Suntreso Prison Barracks, is the first of its kind to be established in the country, and its construction was started about nine years ago.
Officers and men of the service, their families and Catholic faithful living near the barracks would worship there.
Madam Baffour-Awuah said every effort should be made to assist freed-prisoners to lead normal and dignified lives.
She said the negative perceptions, contempt and hostile attitudes towards them should be avoided, so that they would become part of society, and resist the temptation of committing crime.
“They would need our love, care, affection and support to live within the law.” She commended Rev Father Martin Padi, Ashanti Regional Prisons Chaplain, for spearheading the project.
Emeritus Metropolitan Archbishop of Kumasi, the Most Rev Peter Akwasi Sarpong, in a homily, asked the congregation not to allow the church to remain a mere building, but a true place of worship, where the word of God would be shared to change lives.
