Harrison Kwame Golo Presenting The Items On Behalf of The Students To The Prisons Officials
Ghanaians have been urged to embrace convicts who have served their jail terms.
ASP Abdul Latif Amadu, Senior Prisons Officer in-charge of the Nsawam Medium Prisons Diagnostic Centre, said convicts have been rejected by members of the society, including relations which he said does not help in their reformation.
“Crime is a learnt behaviour and whoever is a criminal can unlearn and the prison exists to correct the abnormal behavior of the inmate to adopt a positive one, and so if they are discriminated against when they come out, it makes them vulnerable and they go back to their old ways.”
He made this known when some students pursuing Masters’ Degree programmes at Centre for Conflict, Human Rights and Peace Studies at the University of Education, Winneba paid a visit to the prisons to interact with them.
He noted that a number of them have been physically abused by inhabitants while others have been excommunicated.
He called for collaboration from all to enable the ex-convicts to be more productive in society.
“Government should also play an exemplary role by amending the laws- some portions that prohibit ex-convicts from working in establishment should be amended.
“Their crime should not deny them the opportunity to work in government establishment, but these persons are often denied the opportunity, he said.
The students also donated some food items to the inmates as part of the Human Rights Day that fell on December 10, 2017.
ASP Amadu revealed that in some countries, ex convicts are often employed and helped to reform.
“It is only a few who go back to commit crimes after serving their jail term and so society must also know that the devil finds work for the ideal person,” he lamented.
Touching on some of the problems facing the prison, ASP Amadu said currently Nsawam Prisons is about 400 percent overcrowded, hence the need to decongest the cells by putting up a new structure.
Harrison Kwame Golo, Acting Director in charge of the Centre For Conflict, Human Rights And Peace Studies (CHRAPS), said as human rights students, there was the need to visit places like the prisons to acquaint themselves with situation on the ground and also contribute their quota to better the lives of the inmates while ensuring that their human rights are not infringed upon.
The students donated bags of rice, detergents, bags of Gari, detergents, dairy products, among others, to the inmates.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
(lindatenyah@gmail.com)