Chairman of the Ghana Prisons Service Council has appealed for support from benevolent persons and bodies to help build a health facility for prisoners in the country.

“Fortunately, we have a land at Nsawam. We request that philanthropists, corporate Ghana, churches, mosques help us to put up an ultra-modern hospital for the Ghana Prisons Service. It will be of benefit to us all,” he pleaded.

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Rev Dr Stephen Wengam made this appeal a day after the council held a press conference on the first anniversary of the launch of Afiase Project, a plan to improve conditions in Ghana’s prisons and its prisoners within a decade, with a target amount of GHS25million from contributions.

Ghana's prisons which was designed to house 9,000 inmates now houses about 15,000 inmates with 21 per cent of them being remand prisoners.

Rev Dr Wengam however wondered why the Prison's Service cannot boast of a health facility dedicated to prisoners despite the huge numbers.

Read more:Ghana Prisons

Volunteers can donate to an SMS short code, 9050 which cost GHC1.00 per text.  He revealed that GHS200,000 has so far been realised after the launch, which had been used in capacity-building programmes for prison officers.

The funds to be raised are expected to go not only into improving and expanding facilities at the country’s prisons but also in equipping inmates with skills.