Carry out duty with professionalism - Prisons Director-General charges officers

The Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, DGP Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, has urged staff of the service to rededicate themselves to carrying out their roles in a highly professional manner to reflect their roles as correctional officers.

That, she said, was critical in winning over the confidence and trust of the general public, which would attract the needed support and cooperation from stakeholders.

“Our role is trying to help those who through unfortunate circumstances, find themselves in our prisons to have hope and not give up, despite the challenging times. We cannot be seen as either compounding their issues and for criminals, be seen as condoning with them to continue their criminal activities even while in incarceration,” Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie stated.

She was addressing her first durbar of officers of the Prisons Headquarters since assuming her new role.

The durbar, held at the Prisons interdenominational church in Accra, was well attended and saw enthusiastic participation from the officers, indicating their support and solidarity with their new Director-General.

Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie, the first woman from the Prisons Service who has risen through the ranks to assume the topmost role, encouraged the officers to chart a new work ethic, taking time to reflect on how their actions and inactions impacted their roles as correctional officers.

Collective effort

The Director-General told the durbar that during her swearing-in by the President, she had assured the government of the Prison Service’s commitment to modernisation and reformation, a pledge that could only be achieved with a collective effort from all and sundry within the service.

The officers durbar

“During my swearing-in, I pledged the support of the Ghana Prisons Service to the government and gave the assurance that in addition to modernisation and reformation, we will prioritise the welfare of our officers and contribute meaningfully to the nation’s development.

“However, that cannot be achieved by only leadership, but by our collective effort; everyone must see him or herself as an important part of this chain and change and commit to working hard at it with dedication and diligence,” she emphasised.  

Inspiration

In their engagement, the officers who took turns to speak congratulated the Director-General on her assumption of the role.

They described her as an inspiration to many of them and further pledged to support her to realise her plan to modernise the Prisons Service.

“We are inspired by your story and how you have dedicated yourself to this role we play and you have dutifully paid your dues to be at the top of affairs.

“We also pledge to help you realise your goals for this Service,” the officers stated.