Prison officers must ensure inmates are not radicalised — Henry Quartey

The Deputy Minister for the Interior, Mr Henry Quartey, has asked the Ghana Prisons Service to adequately equip personnel of the service with requisite skills to ensure that prison inmates are not radicalised.

He said changes in the trend of crime in the West African sub-region, coupled with vulnerability of the prison environment, had increased threats of breeding extremists in prisons for which reason prison officers and other security agencies needed to up their game to curtail such potential threats.

“The threat and trend of crime has taken a different dimension in the West African sub-region.

 Boko Haram and other jihadist groups in the Sahel region are staging terrorist attacks on people, leaving massive destruction to life and property in their trail.

“There is, therefore, no gainsaying that in due course you will receive radicalised criminal elements into your custody,” he stated.

Conference

Mr Quartey was addressing this year’s regional and station commanders conference of the Ghana Prisons Service in Accra last Thursday on the theme: “Making Prison enterprises thrive: the role of the commanders.”

It was the first time regional and station commanders, together with key scheduled heads of the service, came together to dialogue on issues of concern to the establishment.

The participants also deliberated on the status of a 10-year strategic plan of the service.

The minister commended officers and men of the service for already taking the initiative to liaise with the counter terrorism unit of the National Security Council Secretariat to deliberate on terrorism and threats it posed to the country.

He called for more of such collaborations among security agencies to help nip terrorism threats in the bud.

Advice

While advising the leadership of the Prisons Service to adopt a business approach to management of prisons without compromising on their core business of ensuring public safety, the minister also said the service was abound with talents and resources which could be harnessed to generate revenue.

“Agriculture readily comes to mind because it has the potential to contribute significantly to reduce ration bills and free much-needed funds for other critical interventions in the prisons, aside from contributing to food security in the country,” Mr Quartey said.

He further called on prisons commanders to step up their supervisory roles at their farming stations to ensure that farm inputs were put to right uses and the proceeds accounted for.

The minister also urged the service to take advantage of the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs initiative, as well as the Rearing for Food and Jobs policy to complement their fundraising initiatives.

On the development of human resource of the service, he gave an assurance that the government was ready to commit more resources into systematic and formalised career development programmes for all ranks.

He observed that the lack of logistics and poor infrastructure remained a veritable challenge for the service, but said the government was working to ensure those challenges were addressed.

Responsibilities

For his part, the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Mr Patrick Darko Missah, said their responsibilities included ensuring the safe custody and welfare of prisoners as well as their rehabilitation and reformation.

According to Mr Missah, such duties demanded that prison officers put their shoulder to the wheel.

He said leadership of the service would meet regularly to evaluate their performances and come up with pragmatic strategies to enhance their work for improved output.

It was the first time in eight years that the last regional and commanders conference was held by the service.