By Yussif Ibrahim
Kumasi, Oct. 31, GNA – Mr. Samuel Yaw Tannor, the Outgoing Ashanti Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons Service, has called for the establishment of a Prisons Hospital to cater for the health needs of inmates, officers and the general public.
He said the need for a hospital for the Service had never been more important than now, considering the huge number of inmates and its attendant health challenges.
He made the call in an interview with the media after a pull-out parade held in his honour in Kumasi, after 30 years of service as Prisons Officer.
Mr. Tannor who retired as a Deputy Director of Prisons, said a hospital for the Service would not only address the health needs of stakeholders, but also improve service delivery.
He said the Service had been spending a lot of its resources taking care of the health of inmates because most of them had no health insurance, a situation, he said, justified the need for a hospital owned by the Service.
Mr Tannor said the Service had vast lands at both the Nsawam and Ankaful Prisons which could be used for the hospital project and called on public-spirited organisations and individuals to help build the hospital.
The Out-going Commander also underscored the need to scale up the farming scheme by some of the prisons to support the feeding of inmates which remained a huge challenge for the Service.
He said the farm produce of such prisons was what complemented the GHC 1.80 p allocated for each prisoner per day and stressed the need to expand the farming scheme to cut down on procurement of food for the prisoners.
He recounted how he had to engage some of their food suppliers to encourage them not to suspend their supplies to the institution due to late release of their monies, adding that, scaling up farming in the various prisons was the way to go to solve the perennial problem.
Mr. Tannor commended the public, especially religious bodies and other philanthropists in the Ashanti Region for their donations to the facility over the years and called for their continuous support.
“I want to acknowledge the support of the people of Ashanti Region and encouraged them to continue to support the facility as I leave office,” he said.
GNA