Gov't aims at rehabilitating every prisoner - Aidoo

Mr Joseph Aidoo, Western Regional Minister, on Monday said that it was the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government's policy to ensure that every prisoner was rehabilitated and fully integrated into the society.

In this regard, he said government would work to ensure that Prison Farm Camps were opened to expose prisoners to modern agricultural methods and skills.

Mr Aidoo was launching the Second Ghana Prison Service Week celebration under the theme: "Rehabilitation of the Prison Inmates in the new dawn," at Sekondi.

He said effort would be made to revamp workshops in prisons and establish new ones to train inmates in income-generating activities so that when they were discharged they could fit into the new job.

Mr Addo expressed concern about reports of maltreatment of inmates in some prisons and the connivance of officers thus allowing some of them to commit more crimes in prison.

Mr Aidoo said such behaviour was against the rights of prisoners and the fundamental principles upon which the Prison Service was established.

He appealed to the prison authorities to put measures in place to prevent such behaviour that was not only tarnishing the image of the Service but also eroding public confidence in the Prisons.

Mr Alexander Osei-Bonsu, Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons service called on the society not to abandon inmates to enable the service to successfully rehabilitate them.

If inmates were treated humanely it would break the cycle where some of them did not feel wanted and, therefore, committed new crimes so that they could be returned to the Prison.

Mr Osei-Bonsu, who is a Deputy Director of Prisons, appealed to the public to award contracts on construction, carpentry, tailoring and dressmaking to workshops of the prisons. Mr Aidoo later opened an exhibition of products manufactured by prisoners and inspected the Sekondi Central Prisons.