The Upper East Region Director of Prisons, Mrs. Florence Yeboah Acheampong, has expressed worry that some prison inmates were unable to contribute meaningfully to the development of society after serving their jail sentence. She said the country’s prisons could not effectively offer vocational skills training to the inmates while in jail, defeating the reformation aspect of imprisonment, adding “they only eat and sleep at the cost of the tax payer”. Mrs. Acheampong said these when she conducted the Regional Minister, Mr. Alhassan Samari round the Regional Prison to assess at first hand problems of inmates and the prison in general for the necessary action by the Regional Prisons Committee. Other members of the committee on the visit included the Regional Director of Prisons, the Paramount Chief of Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Abugrago Azoka II, representing the Regional House of Chiefs and Mr. Daniel Akanyani, a representative of religious bodies. Mrs. Acheampong said some assemblies in the region had promised to support the prison to enable it train inmates in vocational skills such as soap making, weaving and leather works. She dispelled the notion by some people that jail sentence was meant to only punish offenders and explained that it was aimed at reforming offenders through various correctional measures such as skill acquisition to enable them to re-integrate into society. Mr Samari who is also chairman of the committee, said the group had met with the Regional State Attorney and it was agreed that there was the need to post more judges to the region to speed up the delivery of justice. He said government had put in place strategies to ensure that justice was delivered on time to reduce the number of cases at the courts and the time suspects spent on remand. Mr Samari pledged to work out modalities to facilitate the construction of the workshops and appealed to the inmates to take their skill training seriously adding, “we are doing everything to support you, try and learn the trade we shall be bringing to you. We are trying to change your situation, try and change your status”. Source: GNA