Eighty percent of inmates at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison have been registered onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to enable them to access quality healthcare.
Additionally, 40 medical practitioners had been seconded from the Ghana Health Service and deployed to the various prison establishments across the country to take care of the health needs of inmates.
Besides, the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, Ankaful Security Prison and Koforidua Local Prison, as well as all infirmaries of the Ghana Prisons Service, would soon be accredited to receive NHIS claims to ensure the welfare of prisoners.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia announced this at the Officer Cadet Course In-take 26 of the Ghana Prisons Service held at the Ghana Prisons Training School in Accra, on Friday.
In all, 140 officer cadets drawn from a variety of professional backgrounds including Agriculture, Medicine, Psychology, Nursing, Law and Accounting were commissioned as senior officers into the Ghana Prisons Service.
Vice President Bawumia urged them to serve as good stewards and impart meaningful vocational skills to the inmates so that they could integrate well into the larger society after serving their terms of imprisonment.
He encouraged the Prison Administration to work in partnership with the private sector to come out with innovative programmes that could generate extra revenues to supplement the government’s funding.
Dr Bawumia assured of government’s commitment to resource the Service to perform its constitutional mandate effectively, noting that, government would soon provide operational and utility vehicles for the Service to augment the current fleet.
He entreated the prison officers to work with integrity and dignity without taking any monetary inducement to compromise on their core values and service rules.
Vice President Bawumia noted that security was a collective responsibility and urged all well-meaning Ghanaians to support the efforts of the security agencies by providing useful information on suspicious characters in their communities to the security agencies for prompt action, in order to maintain the peace and tranquility of the nation.
Some cadets who excelled during the training were awarded certificates and plaques.
