At the passing-out of new prison officers in Accra about a week ago, the government declared its intention to address the poor conditions in the country’s prisons. This should be good news to those who have a fair knowledge of conditions in our prison facilities. The Prisons Service, like many other public institutions, has over the years suffered under the proverbial ‘No funds’ syndrome and those who know the system very well, will admit that there is very little correction in our prison system. Overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of learning and training facilities have made the prisons more of concentration camps than centres of reformation. Last year, Daasebre Gyamena, a very popular Ghanaian musician, came out of a London jail proclaiming that he had, during his period of incarceration, composed a number of songs that were soon to be released. According to Gyamena, while in custody, he took advantage of facilities available to take courses in Information Technology and Mathematics, for which he was awarded a certificate. That is where the difference lies. In Ghana, very few can claim that they came out of our prisons better equipped than when they went in. Some claim spiritual development, which only confirms the physical deprivations they went through while in prison custody. I must admit that I do not have figures to prove it, but most convicts go back to prisons not because they enjoy conditions there, but mostly because they have improved upon their criminal skills and have very little means to lead decent lives. The workshops that are to transform the unskilled inmates into a pool of employable talents do not exist or at best, lack the necessary equipment and tools and trainers needed to do the transformation. Those with skills and some level of academic qualifications come out stale and rusty because facilities such as libraries to encourage academic discourse are simply not available in our prisons. These deprivations and the stigma associated with prison life have seriously contributed to the situation where most convicts come out from the prisons ready to exert revenge on society. Any programme to reform the penal system and turn the prisons into correctional centres should be applauded. My only problem is that this reform is being tied to a change in name. Our penchant for changing the names of our institutions and ministries as part of improving or transforming them is not only disturbing but intriguing. We are told that a draft Prisons Service Law and Regulations that will rename the Ghana Prisons Service as the Ghana Correctional Service is awaiting Presidential assent. Do we always have to change names before improving conditions in our institutions and making them more effective and relevant to our needs? We know the problems of the Ghana Prisons Service. We know the solutions do not lie in new names. So why do we think by giving an old institution a new name, everything will change for the better overnight? Take our educational system for example. We have transformed the primary and middle to the junior and senior secondary schools without seeing the fundamental changes we expect in the system. Quite recently, we went further to the junior high and senior high schools with our changing of names without any improvement (change) in infrastructure, facilities and service conditions. So which should be our concern? Changing names or improving facilities? We have elevated our polytechnics to tertiary status with corresponding upgrading in facilities, academic structure and service conditions. The agitation by the polytechnic graduates for recognition stems from the fact that much work did not go into the upgrading of the polytechnics before going public with the declaration. We came to realise rather too painfully that it is easier changing a name than living up to that name. Thanks to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), the polytechnics are seeing a lot of improvement in physical infrastructure. But we still have a lot to do to bring them to a level where they can adequately produce the middle-management power of the country, especially in the sciences and technical fields. Our ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have changed names several times in recent times so much so that it will be difficult for any examiner to attempt posing a question like; “How many ministries do we have in Ghana?” In any examination and expect the students to pass. It will even be more difficult if the students were asked to name those ministries. By separation, attachment or elimination, we have created so many ministries in so short a time as if that is the panacea for our problems. For just one sector, there have been different ministries. For instance, the energy sector alone has seen many ministries including, Fuel and Power; Fuel and Energy; Energy and Mines and we are still searching. There was, or were once, Ministry of Transport and Communications; Ministry of Roads and Transport; Ministry of Roads and Highways and those readers can remember. These changes are not reflecting on the standard of roads, which the ministries are to tackle anyway. We once had the Ministry of Trade and Industries. It became Trade and Tourism; then Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City (many might have forgotten this); Tourism and Diasporan Relations and those to follow. What is Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) when agriculture is mainly about food anyway? With every change in ministerial name comes shuffling of staff, redesignation of officers, and change in name or transfer of departments from one ministry to another. We have done it so much that sometimes members of the public and the business community do not find their way clear as to which ministry to do business with. A road contractor may shuttle between the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ministry of Transportation, for even though it may sound simple, sometimes, one file for a particular project may be in one ministry while another file on the same project may be in the cabinet of another ministry. Such is our obsession with bureaucracy that we spend more time creating new ministries and renaming others instead of ensuring that the existing ones do the right thing. This is the fear I harbour for the Ghana Correctional Service, which is to replace the Ghana Prisons Service. It may end up as a change in name but the service will remain the same. I think it is time we ended up somewhere and began to understand that names do not do the work and creating and recreating ministries will not change our fortunes if our vision and attitude do not change. Somebody may ask; “What is in a name?” Source: Kofi Akordor/Daily Guide