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Mrs Heather Boateng-Okyere (second right), Member of CSR team of GHL, presenting the items to an officer of the centre. With her is Mrs Sylvia Adadey (right)
Mrs Heather Boateng-Okyere (second right), Member of CSR team of GHL, presenting the items to an officer of the centre. With her is Mrs Sylvia Adadey (right)

Senior Correctional Centre cries for support

An officer of the Senior Correctional Centre (SCC) in Accra, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Bright Dogbatse, has called on the government and other corporate bodies to help transform the centre into a model juvenile reformatory.

That, he said, was because the present uncertain conditions, coupled with very few resources, were making it a challenge for the centre to provide holistic treatment and reintegrate the inmates into the society.

“Although the centre is doing its possible best to serve as a receptacle for all committed male juvenile offenders from all over the country, the current uncertain conditions are making officers plead for aid to support the home all the time,” ASP Dogbatse told the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of an event to donate some items to the centre by Ghana Home Loans (GHL) in Accra.

Rehabilitation

He said to be able to transform the centre into a model reformatory institution, there should be a total rehabilitation of the home to provide decent and safe accommodation for the inmates.

He also called on the government to adjust upwards the GH¢1.80 a day, per inmate, feeding grant  to improve and sustain the quality of food for the young boys, adding that it was crucial to provide functional and child-friendly classrooms, teaching and learning materials and a science laboratory.

The officer appealed for support to upgrade the centre’s infirmary to a clinic in order to provide quality health care to the young inmates, explaining that the present infirmary lacked basic drugs.

He emphasised that, “With support from all of us, individuals, religious groups, civil society and corporate Ghana via their corporate social responsibility initiatives, we can easily help provide a better environment for our children in custody at the juvenile reformatory centre and also ensure a safe, secure and brighter future for them.”

The SCC in Accra, formerly known as the Ghana Borstal Institute (GBI), is the only functional male juvenile reformatory centre in the country and it presently houses about 153 male juvenile offenders.

It was established on May 17, 1947 to save the young and careless boys from a wasted life of crime. Its motto is, ‘I shall rise again.’

Donation

The GHL presented a number of items to the SCC in Accra as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) of supporting the less endowed in society to nurture and develop their potential.

The items included toilet rolls, bags of rice, oil, soap, washing powder, bags of sachet water, non-alcoholic beverages, among other things.

The rationale behind the donation was to support the authorities of the SCC to remain focused on its quest to provide employable skills to the inmates to enable them to live decently.

The Business Development Manager of GHL, Mrs Sylvia Adadey, said notwithstanding the fact that many governments, institutions, non-governmental organisations and bilateral donors in Africa were contributing in diverse ways to support the underprivileged in society, more needed to be done.

She said the GHL had, therefore, identified the SCC and others across the country and would support them in diverse ways, especially in the area of education.

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