Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, Minister-designate for Interior, has pledged to prioritise the Ghana Prisons Service if approved by Parliament.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase told Parliament’s Appointments Committee that the Service had been neglected for years and that it was time they were given adequate resources to help them work more efficiently and effectively.
Mr. Mohammed-Muntaka proposed renaming prisons as Correctional Centres.
He admitted that even from the few briefings he had seen while preparing for his vetting, the Prisons Service had been left to be deep orphans, and sometimes all of us turned to forget about them, and that could be the weakest link to keep our country safe’’.
‘’I can assure you that I am going to pay a lot of attention to the Ghana Prisons Service.’’
He said President John Dramani Mahama has even proposed to rename the service from Prisons to Corrections to help transform the mindset of those ent there.
He noted that there are several examples of countries using private and public partnerships to help transform the lives of inmates through skills training and income acquisition.
‘’This is an area we need to look at,’’ while stressing the need to adopt it in Ghana since it will go a long way in shaping our inmates.
He also described the Ghc 1.80p allocated as feeding for inmates for a day as woefully inadequate, noting that even the committee members’ cats and dogs cost far more than the Ghc 1.80p.
He emphasised that the way our prisons are managed makes it difficult to reform inmates because they are more likely to be released as hardened criminals rather than reformed individuals.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
