Awutu Camp Prison reforms inmates through farming
The management of the Awutu Camp Prison, located close to Kasoa in the Awutu Senya East municipality in the Central Region, has taken to farming as a way of reforming the inmates and giving them a livelihood after prison.
The camp currently has an 80-hectare maize farm, in addition to beans and vegetable farms and a mango plantation, where the inmates are taught good farming practices.
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The Officer in charge of the camp, Chief Supt. William Thomas Anaman, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said all the 114 inmates at the facility went through the programme.
"The boys are trained in farm practices, so that by the time they leave prison, they will be well-equipped to support themselves through farming and be useful to themselves and society," he said.
Field trip
Chief Supt Anaman spoke to the Daily Graphic when officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Knights, a technology transfer company, organised a field trip to demonstrate how tractors the government had acquired for the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme were operated.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Knights Technology Transfer of the Czech Republic, Dr Karl Laryea, led a team from the company to the Awutu Camp Prison farm for the demonstration exercise.
Officials of MoFA, including the Director of the Agricultural Engineering Services Directorate (AESD), Mr Amatus K.B. Deyang, and the Awutu Senya Municipal Director of Agriculture, Mr Edward Laryea Koney, were part of the event.
Success story
Chief Supt Anaman explained that for the past two years, the camp had taken the agricultural reformation programme seriously, since it offered a prudent way of managing inmates and preventing them from going back to their old ways.
"We planted 60 hectares of maize last year and got more than 600 bags. We have planted 80 hectares this year, and with the way the plants are flourishing, we expect to get at least 800 bags," he said.
He called on groups, corporations and individuals to help prisons in the country reform inmates, so that society could benefit from them.
Collaboration
He said it was through collaborative efforts and the support given to prisons that the myriad of challenges facing prison establishments could be addressed for the effective management of inmates.
"The management of prison inmates must not be left in the hands of only prison officers. While we manage them from the angle of the law, faith-based organisations can support with the Word of God for behavioural change," he said.
Appeal
On the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), he said the managers of the facility were doing their best to go by the safety protocols to ensure that the inmates were safe.
He said, however, that the supply and availability of nose masks and hand sanitisers remained a challenge to them.
