Assistant Director of Prisons, Apostle James Tetteh, the Chaplain-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, has appealed to Government for tractors and other equipment for the Service to go into mechanized farming.
The initiative is to help the Service feed inmates well, especially, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Service had farm lands and with the assistance of Government, it could be able to produce enough food to supplement the GHC1.80 pesewas feeding rate for inmates per day, which was not enough.
Apostle Tetteh, made the appeal at a workshop on COVID-19 prevention and management for some personnel of the Prisons service.
It was organized by the Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Accra.
“I know Government is doing well to support the Service, but it is not enough because what we want is to produce to be able to feed inmates well, we have not gotten there yet hence the need for the backing to boast our food production,” he stated.
He said due to COVID-19, it had become imperative to increase the nutrition of inmates to strengthen their immune system against the virus.
Apostle Tetteh expressed gratitude to GHS for the training and said there were no cases of COVID-19 within the Service, saying, “we give thanks to God and we will continue to do our best to ensure that no inmate is infected with the virus till the pandemic is totally out of the system.”
The training, which was done in prions across the country sought to enhance the capacity of prison officers and inmates on COVID-19 Risk Communication and the need to have change in behavior to contain spread.
Mr Joel Abekuliya, the Coordinator Risk Communication Health Promotion Division, GHS, during the training said the engagement was to empower the officers with the right information on COVID-19 as the fight was still on.
He noted that Prisons were one of the critical stakeholders, considering the prisons system, the way inmates were housed and overcrowding, with high risk for infectious diseases.
Mr Abekuliya noted that the training had become necessary so that in the event of a second wave of infection, the prisons would be better prepared to prevent spread of the disease.
He urged the officers to engage some inmates as peer educators to ensure adherence to the safety protocols.
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