Government has given approval for the recruitment of 1000 young men and women into the Ghana Prisons Service this year to augment their staff strength.

This was disclosed by the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery at the graduation parade of officers of the Ghana Prisons Service on Friday, 23 March 2018, following the completion of their Cadet Course intake 24 at the Prisons Officers Training School at Roman Ridge, Accra.

Mr Dery promised government’s commitment to provide logistics and operational support for the prisons service.

He was of the opinion that the recruitment of additional 1000 men and women will reduce the work load of the current staff of the service and also help create jobs.

Mr Dery, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nandom Constituency, stated that: “In addition to logistics and operational support, a committed, knowledgeable and adequately skilled workforce is necessary for the achievement of the said target within any organisation. To this end, efforts are being made to upgrade the prison officer training school with facilities and professional expertise to train correctional officers not only for the Ghana Prisons Service but the rest of the continent and possibly beyond.”

He continued: “There are plans to also modify training curricula to appropriately address contemporary issues in correctional practice across the globe and also meet United Nations requirement. In the recent past the school has trained correctional practitioners from Burundi and Liberia.

“Furthermore, in order to augment the staff strength of the service government has given approval for the recruitment of 1000 young men and women into the service this year. It is anticipated that this number will lessen the pressure on staff currently and reduce work related stress among the rank and file of the service.”

He further urged the commissioned officers to respect the rights of inmates and act professionally in the discharge of their duties.