The Sunyani Central Prison is engaging in a large-scale farming project to provide sufficient and nutritional meals and thereby improve the general welfare of inmates.
According to Superintendent Dennis Peasah, the Bono Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, the officers and some inmates were undertaking the project, an initiative of the Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) Thompson Otsyokpo, the Bono Regional Prisons Commander.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, he said: “We have cleared, ploughed and transformed a once-dense forest around the prisons into productive farmland for the project”.
Supt Peasah said the project had maize, cabbage, oil palm plantation and other crops, saying the project implementation had further fostered teamwork, resilience and responsibility among the inmates who worked with the officers in plantation and maintenance.
“The project complements the “Director General’s Kitchen initiative which mandates all prison facilities to become self-reliant in feeding the inmates”, he explained, saying “by growing our own food we will be able to improve the value of meals for the inmates”.
Supt Peasah said the project would reduce operational costs of the prisons, provide inmates with practical agricultural skills and also to support the rehabilitation and successful reintegration of inmates in society after serving their sentences.
Source: Access Agric
