Ankaful, April 13, GNA – Dr Nana Ato Arthur, Member of Parliament (MP) for Komenda-Edina- Eguafo-Abram (KEEA) Constituency has called for the establishment of a college in the country to enrol prison inmates.
He said such a college would enable students serving jails terms to continue with their education to improve upon their knowledge and skills which would enhance their lives outside the prison.
Dr Arthur said this on Friday at the inauguration of a mosque at the Ankaful Main Camp Prison at Ankaful, Near Elmina.
The mosque which has a seating capacity of about 200 was built by the authorities of the Prisons with sponsorship from Sheikh Mustapha Ibrahim of Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services (ICODEHS).
Dr Arthur promised to introduce the idea in parliament saying if it is accepted by the house he would personally champion its establishment.
Madam Matilda Baffour-Awuah, Acting Director General of the Prisons Service, said the new vision of the service was to foster private and public partnership.
She said this would give the service the advantage of entering into partnership with private and other public institutions to develop and better the lots of the society with the resources available to them.
She said the service would focus on areas like Agriculture and industries where there abound a lot of benefits, including the acquisition of knowledge and skills by the inmates and generation of revenues to expand the frontiers of their reformation and rehabilitation mandate.
Madam Baffour-Awuah commended Sheikh Ibrahim for the gesture and pointed out that the Prison Service has always cherished the partnership with religious bodies which she noted was the area of bringing spiritual up-liftment and hope to the prison inmate since ‘through religion one could see change that stems from the heart’. Mr Leopold Kwame Amoah Ansah, Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) Officer In-charge of the Prisons called on the public to see prison inmates just like everyone else outside the walls of the prison and that prisoners were not the irretrievable and vicious elements people perceived them to be.
He said if the society gives the service necessary support, resources and equipment to its educational and vocational training programmes it would be able to impact positively on the inmates’ skills and knowledge.
Mr Ansah said that if the inmates were given the requisite skills and knowledge, it would help them to become independent, resettled and get reintegrated into the society and contribute meaningfully towards national development.
He said it was the hope of the service that the inmates would commit themselves faithfully to the significance and purpose of the mosque and allow the will of Allah to prevail in their lives so that they would have a better life.
Mr Ansah appealed to Sheikh Ibrahim to assist the Prison Camp dig a borehole to help address the water supply needs of the Ankaful prisons.
Sheikh Ibrahim unveiled the plague and dedicated the mosque to the Almighty Allah.
GNA