The British High Commission as part of its development assistance and commitment to strengthening criminal justice administration in Ghana through technology has donated IT equipment to the Ghana Prisons Service.

This donation is to support the establishment of an Electronic Case Management System for the Prisons Service.

The items donated included two Database servers, 45 Workstations (Monitors, Base Units, UPS, and Keyboards), 45 biometric fingerprint readers, 45 Webcams and 45 printers.

Following a 2018 Memorandum of Understanding signed by the British High Commission Accra and the Ghana Prisons Service, this donation, as part of a ¢2.5 million commitment, is aimed at substituting the manual system of record keeping with a more efficient electronic system to improve data management in correctional facilities.

The Electronic Case Management System developed by Axiom International-UK in close consultation with the IT department of the Ghana Prisons Service will be deployed across all the prisons estates in Ghana to capture the biodata of prisoners and safeguard proper data management.

Speaking at the ceremony, British High Commissioner Iain Walker said, “This event marks a significant step in the migration of data from the manual system into the electronic format in Ghana’s Prisons.

“The interconnectivity of the system across all 43 estates in Ghana will make criminal data easily accessible for judicial, administrative and research purposes”.

The High Commissioner also stressed on the partnership that the UK government has with Ghana and the need to nurture it to enhance development for both countries.

The Deputy Director of Prisons in charge of Operations, Sylvester Rabbles, in his acceptance remarks, said, “…Apart from supporting the easy gathering, storage and accessibility of data, the transfer of knowledge to 200 officers across all the prisons estates in the usage of the system will also contribute to its sustainability as well.

“These officers will become the core group to train others in how to manage the system. This innovation will go a long way in supporting Ghana’s criminal justice system”.

In a related development, the British High Commission in March, organised a two-week training workshop from March 7-21, 2019, on Human Rights and Prisons Management to 180 prison officers.

The training falls in line with the High commission’s Capacity Building Project for the Ghana Prisons Service and was facilitated by Axiom International–UK and aimed at enhancing skills of prison officers in human rights and modern prisons management techniques.

This training adds up to the numerous projects undertaken by the British High Commission for the Ghana Prisons Services and forms part of a four-stranded project to strengthen the institutional capacity and prisoner management of the Ghana Prisons Service.