UNDP gives more to prisons service

THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has donated educational materials valued at $40,000 to the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS).
The materials, which include computers, books and pens, are to be used in teaching the inmates of prisons.
The donation brings the total support of the UNDP to the GPS this year to $110,000.
Donating the materials, the Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP, Mr Shigeki Komatsubara, said the support formed part of a collaboration between the GPS and the UNDP to strengthen human rights in prisons.
He said the collaboration was a key pillar of UNDP-Ghana’s programme to promote access to justice and respect for human rights.
That programme, he said, included collaboration with the Legal Aid Scheme, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Judicial Service and the Ministry of Justice.
Mr Komatsubara was hopeful that the support would enable the service to replicate the success in the establishment of non-formal, formal and ICT education for the inmates of the Nsawam, Tamale, Kumasi, Sekondi, Ankaful, Ho and some selected local prisons throughout the country.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Nana Obiri Boahen, who received the items, commended the UNDP for its continued support for state institutions.
He said it was the policy of the government to promote literacy in prisons and called on other organisations to emulate the UNDP's gesture.