Don’t neglect your responsibilities to children – Prisons officer advices parents

Mrs. Victoria Adzewodah, speaking to Journalists after receiving the donation, said, as at the morning of 20th December, 2022, the Senior Correctional Centre, had 249 inmates in safe custody, and their ages ranges from 13 to 21 years.

“That’s what the juvenile Justice Act says that we should take, and they comprise of two categories; we have the juveniles and young offenders. These are young boys of this age range, they are full of youthful exuberance, apart from youthful exuberance we also have neglect from parents.”

She appealed to every parent to take good care of their children and protect them from bad friends.

“We should draw closer to our children, be friends with them, tell them what they need to know at this age, so that bad people in society will not influence them.”

Assistant Director of Prisons, Mrs. Victoria Adzewodah, said the Senior Correctional Centre, remains committed to providing formal education, skills training and counselling sessions to the inmates, to become better citizens in society.

She revealed that the facility is a correctional institution.

“It’s a detention center, it’s not a prison. So, the good news is that, all the young people who find themselves here don’t go out with criminal record, when they leave here, they don’t have a criminal record, and so it behooves on us to train them, give them a skill, give them hope, give them life so that they can go back to society and start new life. Because of that, we have programmes put in place.”

“The flagship one is the school system; formal and non-formal. We have formal education, we have JHS situated here called the Reformer Junior High School. So, when you are in school and something happens, and you find yourself here, you still have the chance to continue the education. They write the BECE, every year.

Then when they pass, they are also placed in any school just like any child in Ghana, but we make sure to select schools around Accra, like the St. Thomas Aquinas, Labone, Osu Presec, where they attend as day students, Prisons Headquarters gives us a bus that conveys them to and from school.

So, all those who do the non-formal also do the vocational and technical, like tailoring, carpentering, masonry, auto mechanic, auto electrical, general electrical, baboon craft. We have about 16 different workshops that we put them through to learn a skill before they leave our premises.”

“Those who excel are made to write the NVTI, and they pass with certificate, so this is some of the things we do to reform them. Apart from Pastors who come around to preach to them, we have counselors around who take them through individual or group counseling, so it’s a holistic treatment we give them, so then when they leave here, they will not go back to the crime that brought them in” she added.

The Presiding Elder of Accra Central District of the A.ME. Zion church, Rev. Liberty Kwame Doe, led the team which included the Pastor in charge of Big Zion Society at South La Estate, Rev. Chris Gawugbe.

Rev. Doe, said their presence at the Senior Correctional Centre is to share life experiences with the inmates, to give them hope, so that they appreciate the transformation programme they are going through at the Centre.

He remarked, “Just as Joseph was in prison God had plans for him. I know these children definitely the training they are having here is preparing them, it’s transforming them, so that they will become future leader and contribute their quota to the development of this nation and we wish them peace of the Lord.”

Rev. Doe expressed gratitude to Mrs. Laura Ayee Donkor, District President, Home Mission of Accra Central District of the A.ME. Zion church, for being a benefactor, and always ready to offer a helping hand to the needy and vulnerable.