Non-custodial punishment being considered, Prisons Council member

Wa, March 2, GNA - Mrs Mary Amadu, a member of the Ghana Prisons Council, has said the council was making moves to introduce non-custodial sentences.

This, she said, was part of measures to decongest the prisons as well as ease some of the burden on prisons officers. Mrs Amadu said this when she addressed a durbar of prison officers and other ranks at the Wa Central Prisons as well as the inaugural ceremony of an 11-member Upper West Regional Prisons Committee. Mrs Amadu appealed to members of the committee to use their rich experiences to source alternative funding to supplement the limited government grant to the service.

Mr William Asiedu, the Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service, said the government was spending three million dollars to provide logistics for the service.

Items being procured include vehicles, equipment for the various carpentry and tailoring workshops and boots. Mr Ambrose Dery, the Upper west Regional Minister and chairman of the committee, said there was an urgent need to provide a female prison in Wa because female convicts had to be sent to Tamale. 02 March 07