The Director-General of Prisons, Mr. Isaac Kofi Egyir has extolled the Catholic Church as one of the key partners of the Ghana Prisons Service.
Paying a courtesy call on the Catholic Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie at his residence on Wednesday, February 16, the Director-General also commended the Church for their continuous support to the Prisons Service over the years.
According to the Facebook page of Ghana Prisons Service, the visit to the Archbishop and the Archdiocese was the first of Mr. Egyir as the Director-General to deepen the relationship between the Catholic Church in Ghana and the Ghana Prisons Service.
Praising the Catholic Church, Mr. Egyir said, “I deem it fit to pay courtesy calls on some key partners especially the priesthood, to come for blessings and also take some pieces of advice that will guide me as the head of a Security Service which is mandated to ensure safe custody and reformation of prisoners.”
In response, Archbishop Kwofie thanked the Director-General and his team for the visit and assured him and the Service of his commitment and support.
Accompanying the Director-General were Mrs. Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, the Director of Prisons in charge of Services and Technical; Daniel B. T. Abbey, the head of Technical unit, Assistant Director of Prisons (ADP); ADP Joseph Vuu, the Personal Assistant to the Director-General of Prisons; Chief Superintendent of Prisons Courage Atsem, the Chief Public Relations Officer, and Assistant Superintendent of Prisons Irene Pieteson Arthur.
On the side of the Archbishop were present were Very Rev. Fr. John Louis, the Vicar General, and Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Appah, Secretary to the Archbishop.
On April 7, 2020, Archbishop Kwofie through the CARITAS Office in Accra presented some items to the Ghana Prisons Service to fight COVID-19 among the inmates and Prison Officers.
The CARITAS office which is the charity unit of the Catholic Church facilitated the mobilisation of the items in response to a request from the Ghana Prisons Service.
Presenting the items in 2020, Archbishop Kwofie noted that the gesture to the Prisons Service was only to improve the already existing relationship and solidarity with the service which coincided with his passion and plan to reach out to the prisoners during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ghana Prisons Service, as an agent operating under the ambit of the Ministry of the Interior, contributes to the maintenance of public safety by ensuring the safe custody of criminals convicted by the courts to terms of imprisonment.
The Vision of the Service is to building a world class Service to attain sustainable public safety through excellence in corrections management while it has the Mission to undertake the safe custody, humane treatment, reformation, rehabilitation and re-integration of inmates to make them responsible, productive and law-abiding citizens to ensure public safety.
Among the Prisons Service goals are re-branding the Service to reflect modern desired ideals, modernization of the Agricultural and the Industrial Wings of the Service to make them financially viable, modernization of management practices and the administration structures, modernization of staff recruitment, manpower planning and development as well as work practices and modernization of the physical structures and operational equipment.
