Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong
Waste management giant — Zoomlion Ghana Limited — has
entered into a new partnership with the Ghana Prisons Service.
The partnership allows the
company to engage the services of prisoners to clean up Accra including weeding
and sweeping of main roads.
Some of the inmates from
various prisons have been seen on major highways like Ring Road, La-Teshie
Beach Road and Nima Highway, with prison wardens supervising them.
The Executive Chairman of
Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw-Agyapong, made this known to senior
journalists on Saturday in Accra.
The journalists had embarked on
a familiarization tour to some waste management facilities belonging to the
Jospong Group of which Zoomlion is a subsidiary.
According to him, the prisoners
being engaged are mainly those who have about a month to serve their terms,
explaining that it is a way of reintegrating them into the society.
He stated that they are
equipped to clean areas under Zoomlion and are paid by the company.
He revealed that when such
prisoners leave prison, they are provided with tricycles to do waste collection
in order to earn a living instead of sending them home without a job.
Dr. Agyapong stated that it was
about integrating inmates into the society after they had left prisons to
prevent them from committing crimes that would send them back to incarceration.
Lately, the Prisons Service has
been exploring innovative ways to use prison labour to the benefit of the
country by initiating income-generating ventures with private partners.
That has been the establishment of the tissue factory at Nsawam and water producing company at James Camp Prison at Roman Ridge, with private entrepreneurs.
BY Melvin Tarlue
