The Yendi Municipal Prison Officer, Chief Superintendent Victor Douchebe, has appealed to the Municipal Assembly to facilitate efforts to rehabilitate the more than 70-year-old prison structure.
He said the prison was presently accommodating 143 inmates including 121 convicts and 22 under remand, while 92 per cent of the prisoners comprised the youth.
Chief Superintendent Douchebe made the appeal when the Member of Parliament for Yendi Mr Baba Iddrisu and the Municipal Chief Executive visited the prison in Yendi.
He said the facility had only eight rooms, accommodating 16 to 23 prisoners in a room while the Prison staff of 62 officers made up of five senior officers and 37 subordinates had no accommodation and were therefore compelled to live in rented premises.
This he said affected the response of the personnel to emergencies.
Chief Superintendent Douchebe said the facility also lacked first aid kits.
He said in order to supplement government’s efforts in feeding the prisoners, his outfit had acquired 80 hectares of land for the cultivation of maize, sorghum and groundnuts, among other crops.
Chief Superintendent Douchebe asked the government to provide the service with computers, sewing machines and other equipment to train the prisoners to acquire employable skills in order to be productive when they finish serving their sentences.
Mr Baba said 2011 was a year of action and he was sure that the Mills Administration would do every thing possible to solve the accommodation problem of the warders.
He advised the officers to instil discipline into the prisoners and transform them to become useful citizens.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Issah Zakaria and the Member of Parliament presented 21- inch colour television and 10 crates of soft drinks to the prisoners as their New Year gift.
In another development the Yendi Circuit Judge, Mr Krofa Addai has appealed to the Assembly to complete the local circuit court project, started two years ago.