As part of measures against the insecurity situation in the West African sub-region, the Vice President, Dr. Mahammudu Bawumia, continues to urge the general public to endeavour to observe and report any suspicious activities in their communities and workplaces.
“The task of maintaining a safe community cannot be left only to the security and law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Given this, he encouraged the public to actively play their role in supporting the security and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and help remove criminal elements from society. He particularly encouraged that they should be guided by the ‘See Something, Say Something’ campaign embarked upon by the government.
The Vice President said this during the ‘Graduation Parade for Officer Cadet Course Intake 30’ of the Ghana Prisons Service at the Prisons Training School in Accra.
He recognised that the Ghana Prisons Service is an integral part of the security architecture and an important facilitator of the criminal justice delivery system of the country. “The inter-dependence of the various components of the criminal justice system gives compelling reasons for the government to equitably resource these components to function effectively,” he said.
Against this background, he acknowledged that the recent recruitment of some 2,000 personnel into the Prisons Service forms part of the various interventions of the government to strengthen the service capacity to deliver on its mandate.
The 203 officers, made up of 157 men and 46 women drawn from a varied professional backgrounds, are the last cohort of six batches, for a total of 2,000 personnel, recruited into the service.
The other security agencies have seen a similar boost in numbers since 2017, he added.
Dr. Bawumia therefore assured that the government will continue to meet not only the human resource needs of the services, but will also strive to provide the tools, logistics and other essentials required to ensure peak performance.
Meanwhile, he mentioned that the government has already released funds for the continuation and completion of the Remand Prison at Nsawam as well as the first phase of the Maximum-Security Prison at Ankaful in the Central Region. He recognised the significant contributions of faith-based organisations and corporate bodies to the growth and development of the Prisons Service.
Also, the Vice President observed the efforts of the service toward discharging its mandate by ensuring the safe custody of inmates while also meeting their welfare needs and helping them to re-organise their lives.
“I am proud of the major rehabilitation programmes the service is undertaking in its quest to better equip inmates for life after prison. I am particularly elated with the agricultural enterprises being run by the service as it points to effective measures being undertaken to complement feeding subventions from the government and, by extension, contribute also to enhancing food security in the country,” he stated.
