Mrs Matilda Baffour Awuah, Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service has commissioned a transformational taskforce to help upgrade the Prisons system to conform to the United Nations standards.
Headed by Reverend James Tetteh, Chief Superintendent of Prisons, the taskforce, which has drawn members from all the departments of the service, would among other things; bring all stakeholders on board to build a solid foundation for the transformation and assess the current state of affairs of the service.
The taskforce would also check on the level of congestions in various prisons throughout the country and make workable recommendations towards decongestion and advise capacity building measures for staff members to take up current roles and responsibilities in the growing spate of crime and sentencing system.
These were contained in a statement signed by Deputy Superintendent of Prisons, Vitalis Aiyeh, Chief Public relations Officer and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Saturday.
The Director-General�s terms of reference for the transformation team according to the statement also include; high level consultations with all stakeholders especially key agencies of the Criminal Justice System, members of the civil society, religious groups, volunteers and both local and international development partners in the Country.
�Our hope is to build wider consensus Prison Reforms in the Country to make the Prisons relevant to Criminal Justice Administration,�
The statement said the British High Commission, Migration Section, led by Mr. Charanpreet Singh Walia, in November 2013, commissioned a study into the Ghanaian Prison System with the aim of making recommendations for its reform into a modern Correctional System.
It said the report, together with its recommendations was being examined by the transformation team to help strategise on actions to take to improve on existing structures, systems, methods of operations and general handling of prisoners in the country.
The Director General according to the statement called on the Ghana Prisons administration and other stakeholders to offer the necessary support to the team to come out with effective measures that would ensure better correctional service in the country.
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