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Report by Edward FRIMPONG
A 5-Day ‘Training of Trainers’ workshop on Classification of Prisoners has been held for officers of the Sunyani Central and Female Prisons at the Prisons canteen.
The training workshop forms part of a three-year structured support scheme initiated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) aimed at strengthening compliance of the Ghana Prisons Service with the Nelson Mandela Rules.
Participants were taken through Classification of inmates which involves determining inmates’ risks and needs and assigning them to facilities, custody levels, housing and programs consistent with those needs.
A total of Fifty (50) participants consisting of Twenty nine (29) officers from the Central Prison and twenty one (21) from the Female Prisons took part in separate sessions.
The Bono Regional Commander and Officer-In-Charge(OIC) of the Sunyani Central Prison , Deputy Director of Prisons(DDP.) Williams Kulah noted that, proper classification of inmates to determine their risks and needs effortlessly aids the process of rehabilitation and reformation.
He mentioned that, the workshop forms part of a series of training programs aimed at steering the Ghana Prisons Service towards the adoption of modern norms in correctional administration.
DDP. Williams Kulah urged participants to equip themselves with the relevant skills needed in setting up a diagnostic center at the Sunyani Central Prison.
The Head of Training and Development of officers at the 1Sunyani Central Prison, Superintendent of Prisons(Supt.) Charles Nana Addai-Boateng said the training program dubbed ‘Together for Rehabilitation’ (T4R) is a classification system based on the Diagnostic Center model at the Medium Security Prisons in Nsawam and its exclusively developed for the Ghana Prisons Service through collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Dr. Thomas Akoensi, who is an external consultant.
He revealed that, setting up the Diagnostic Centre as well as full implementation of the T4R will lead to safeguarding the public, inmates and prison staff from violence and crime and also improve Prison administration through proactive and reactive management of prisoners.
Supt. Addai-Boateng added that, ‘Together for Rehabilitation’ program will create a sentence plan that is subject to update and review to give an evaluation of future recidivism rate, custody adjustment issues and also reduction in risk of recidivism.
He made it known that all the facilitators are beneficiaries of ‘Training of Trainers’ workshops organized earlier this year by UNODC and sponsored by the United States Embassy in Ghana.
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