Kumasi Central Prison: Breath of fresh air
Innovation always calls for celebration and when it comes from no other place than a prison institution like the Kumasi Central Prison in Adum, the breath of fresh air is even more welcoming.
The news earlier in the week shared by Myjoyonline on the refreshing initiative by the management of the Adum prison to get its prisoners useful and more engaging in their communities the day they are released is worth commending.
Water manufacturing
According to a story published in the news portal on June 10, the Kumasi prison is “harnessing the unique skills of its inmates” with the establishment of a water manufacturing centre to produce sachet and bottled drinking water both for domestic and commercial consumption.
This venture is in addition to a vegetable farm they have cultivated where produce is used to subsidise the feeding of the prison inmates.
From the available information, the management of the prison is on course with its laudable initiative of water sachet and bottled water production.
They have been working with the Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA) and have successfully obtained accreditation and approval from them for the mass production of drinking water.
Water, it is said, is life and so one can appropriately say that the prison authorities have engaged in a three-pronged project for life that is not only going to provide drinking water for inmates but also an initiative that would contribute towards the internally generated funds of the Central Prison.
Future job opportunities
Additionally, the initiative will give a grounding life to the inmates who are going to be employed and imparted with life skills.
Those skills would provide them job opportunities and a living wage in the future, once they come out of the prison gate.
It is refreshing that the management has found it useful and needful to put their excess land to such profitable use within the prison premises.
By all indications, such a needful venture would be better served within their location in the Adum barracks.
As the production progresses and the need for more workers is created, it would be an opportunity to extend employment to outsiders within the busy Adum enclave, thus in effect, the prison’s corporate social responsibility to its community.
Rehabilitation
This shining example of the prison should not just stop here; it is the way to go.
They have opened their doors not only for big ideas to thrive even in incarceration but also for looking into opportunities for the future rehabilitation of their inmates.
Of late some of the prison communities have introduced academic excellence in the prisons for inmates who have the urge to further their education even to graduate levels.
Such fantastic ideas should be encouraged even more as tertiary institutions continue to spread around the country.
Increasingly, it is becoming even clearer that the days of just putting agile individuals behind prison bars as punishment for crimes without parallel plans for their good are over.
A concerted strategy for the betterment of the lives ahead of them, especially for the youthful ones, as they come out of prison is the plan.
They should get training of some kind to make them independent and useful so they do not become burdensome to families and communities once they gain their freedom.
And so like even normal communities, because not everyone is cut for academic excellence or learning the ropes for entry into the ministry, for example, varied life skill engagements are in place to fit different levels.
A reset in the prisons, therefore, should increasingly encourage useful everyday skills like carpentry, tailoring, bakery and in some cases, hairdressing and many more.
These need to be pushed to professional heights with training by professionals, and organising regular classes and workshops.
The notable example of setting up a water factory, irrespective of its size, at the Adum prison barracks is worth emulating in many ways by other prison authorities.
Small-scale production sites for businesses such as soap making, beads making, basketry, shea butter skin creams, sanitary pad making and many others, all using basic local raw materials should be encouraged within the confines of our prisons
The idea of incarceration being a kind of rehabilitation for inmates should be brought to life now than ever before.
What communities need to accept is that being thrown into prison is more of both a punishment and a time for reformation.
Incarceration alone, deprived of one’s family and friends, one’s freedom of association, one’s wants and sometimes even needs, are enough punishment. But how about reforming them?
Like those prisons that have opened up their inmates for education even to the highest levels, the way of the Adum Barracks is something that others should emulate.
Sometimes, even going into partnerships with local communities or individual entrepreneurs could open up skills development for inmates and an increase in internally generated funds for the prisons.
Kudos to the fresh breath the Central Prison has brought to bubbling Adum, the business hub for the city of Kumasi.
Waiting for a taste of Adum natural mineral water.
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