The Nsawam Medium Security Prisons has started an educational programme to provide opportunities for inmates and school dropouts to acquire formal education. Sixty inmates have so far been enrolled. The programme which forms part of the President's Special Initiative on Distance Learning started in January with primary, junior high, senior high and non formal education as well as information communication and technology (ICT). The programme follows the normal curriculum of the Ghana Education Service with the imitates in the JHS taking three years to complete and those at the senior high level, spending four years after which they would write the final examination conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) as regular pupils and students do. The Ghana Prisons Service Director General, William Asiedu, said that the idea was to rehabilitate the inmates by imparting knowledge and skills to them so that after serving their sentences, they would have been better equipped for a more meaningful life. Other categories of prisoners, he said, were being trained in vocations like batik tie and dye making, sewing, carpentry, joinery, masonry, weaving, blacksmithry, electronics and baking. Mr Asiedu was briefing the Minister of the Interior, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor, who paid a familiarization visit to the prisons on Wednesday. The minister and his entourage went round to see the inmates busy in class with some taking mock examination in ICT. Mr Asiedu said the introduction of tile programme in the prisons was a long term dream and expressed happiness that it was bearing fruits with the prospects of being replicated in other prisons. He told the minister that the 2007 annual report of the service indicated that the average age of prisoners was 29.2 years which he said portrayed a worrying picture that called for intensified effort to give education and training to inmates. That was why he lauded government's support for the service's reformation and rehabilitation programme to increase inmates' chances of smooth reintegration into society after their prison terms. He appealed to civil society organizations and other philanthropists to complement the government's effort by supporting prisons with teaching and learning tools to enhance teaching and learning. He also commended the government for providing vehicles and equipment and constructing a 5,000 capacity ultra-modern maximum security prison at Ankaful in the Central Region. The Officer-in-Charge of the Nsawam Prison, Deputy Director, Alex Ansong-Agyepong, expressed concern about overcrowding, saying the prison built in 1956 to accommodate 717 inmates, now had over 4,000 inmates. “As at today, the inmate population stands at 2,926, convicted prisoners and 1,903 remand prisoners including those evacuated from the defunct James Town Fort Prison,” he said. “The swelling number of remand prisoners whose cases are either under investigation or awaiting trial is of great concern to us,” he said and added that “the Prisons Administration continues to be in contact with other partners in the Criminal justice system, especially the police and the judiciary with regard to the disposal of these remand cases but our efforts are yet to yield the desired results.” Dr Addo Kufuor said realizing the good work that the service does, government was lending it full support to enable it perform to expectation. He mentioned the provision of vehicles, chain links to fence the prison, communication gadgets, a classroom block for the Nsawam Prisons community, workshop equipment, water tankers and the construction of road networks, as some of the facilities now extended to the prisons. Source: The Ghanaian Times/Francis A. Tuffour