Ho, Sept. 9, GNA - Mr Alhassan Legibo, Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) in charge of the Volta Region on Tuesday, appealed to government, corporate entities and individuals to offer jobs to the Prisons services to get inmates productively engaged.
'Most of our inmates are experienced carpenters, masons, tailors, painters, weavers and craftsmen, whose skills needed to be tapped and developed", He said.
Mr Legibo made the appeal when the Volta Regional Minister, Mr Kofi Dzamesi led the Regional Prison Committee on a visit the Ho Central Prisons.
He said though the inmates are skilful, almost all the 483 inmates made up of both men and women do nothing apart from "eating and sleeping" a situation which does not promote reformation. Mr Legibo said the Prison has become a "breeding place where most of the inmates learn new tricks, become hardened criminals and prefer to make the Prisons their homes. He therefore called for more correctional facilities to prepare the convicts to become useful when they rejoin society. Mr Dzamesi expressed his satisfaction about the improving hygienic conditions at the prisons and its environment and said government remained committed to ensuring the fundamental human rights of all Ghanaians. He was however unhappy with the increasing number of those on remand in the Prisons and promised to see stakeholders on how to tackle the problem. Mr Dzamesi advised the inmates to think seriously about their lives while in prison in order to be better prepared to fit into society as worthy citizens when their terms were over. He presented two bags of rice and a ram to the inmates. During an open forum, one of the inmates in his late 50s asked government to reduce the age at which amnesty is granted from 70 to 60 years to enable older prisoners to gain their freedom early. He explained that God gave man 70 years to live on earth so by reducing to 60 years, ex-convicts could enjoy at least 10 years of freedom. 09 Sept 08
