About 100 inmates at the Sunyani Central Prisons were convicted for armed robbery this year, Deputy Superintendent of Prison (DSP) Johann Nii Narh Nartey, the Bono, East and Ahafo Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) has said.

They were between 18 and 25 years, he said, indicating additional 98 of the inmates within the same age group were sentenced for defilement.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, DSP Nartey explained most of them were convicted for armed robbery, stealing, defilement and narcotics offences.

He said juvenile inmates also increased from six to 10 within the same period, and expressed concern about increased crime wave among the youth in the country.

DSP Nartey underscored the need for intensified public sensitization on crime and attendant effects, and appealed to religious organisations and NGOs to pick the challenge, saying the command had commenced crime sensitization exercise in basic schools and appealed for support to sustain the exercise.