No vehicle for inmates of Tamale Prison

The Tamale Central Prison has no vehicle to convey sick prisoners to health centres to seek medical attention, the Commander of the Northern Regional Prisons Service, Mr Robert K. Awolugutu, has disclosed.

According to him, the prison had been relying on the official vehicle for the commander to send sick prisoners to health centres in the Tamale metropolis.

Mr Awolugutu made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic during a ceremony at which the service, in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, registered about 300 inmates of the Tamale Central Prison onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Challenges

Apart from the lack of transport, the prison is also faced with intermittent water shortage and has no stand-by generator for the proper supervision of prisoners during power outages.

The commander added that inadequate accommodation for officers was also a major challenge, coupled with inadequate arms and ammunition to take care of emergencies.

Those challenges, he said, were not only hampering efforts by the service at delivering on its mandate but also making it impossible for it to achieve its vision and mission.

Population
He said currently there were 479 inmates in the five prisons across the Northern Region — the Tamale male and female, Yendi, Salaga and Gambaga prisons which have 276, 15, 120, 37 and 31 inmates, respectively.

Mr Awolugutu said the Tamale male and female prisons, in addition to their core functions, undertook educational programmes in basic literacy, basket and smock weaving and tailoring, among other activities.

The rest are hairdressing, dressmaking and catering for female prisoners.

He said the service, however, lacked funds to purchase materials for the vocations, thereby, hampering the reformation and rehabilitation of the inmates.