Prisons Service gets new Director-General

Madam Matilda Baffour-Awuah, then the acting Director General of Prisons, was on Friday inducted into office as the substantive Director-General of Prisons. Ms Baffour is the first female officer to assume this enviable position after her appointment by President John Dramani Mahama.

Rt. Rev. Emeritus E. Martey, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, who inducted her into office at the Prisons Church, advised the new Director General not to entertain fear of failure because of her gender as this may pose a challenge to her.

“It will pose tremendous challenge on you, therefore, your desire for success should be more than the fear of failure,” he said.

Rt. Rev Martey said the Office of the new Director General of Prisons should bring transformation to the lives of officers as well as the prisoners.

He said the prison was a place not only to keep criminals in order to protect the rest of society but also a place to reform the prisoners.

Madam Baffour-Awuah assured the public of her fullest commitment by ensuring that the Service continued to make positive strides.

She promised to continue with the modernisation of the prison structures and the legal framework within which the Prisons Service operated.

“My administration will concern itself with development of laws and policies as well as programmes to help fine-tune the operations of the Service in line with international practices and within the framework of the United Nations (UN) standards of minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners,” she said.

Madam Baffour-Awuah said the Prisons Service had already embraced the ideals of corrections with the utmost commitment to ensure a complete shift from being a punitive institution to a purely corrective one.

“The idea is to make imprisonment more humane and create a conducive environment within which offenders can reform and be prepared to return to society as self-sufficient and law-abiding persons,” she said.