The Director General (DG) of the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS), Mrs Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, says her transformative agenda for the service will focus on rehabilitation of inmates, staff welfare, and institutional modernisation.
Additionally, her administration would also focus on building a more professional, humane, and productive correctional system.
Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie made these remarks at her induction ceremony held at the Prisons Interdenominational Church in Cantonments, Accra on Friday.
She also used the occasion to unveil her agenda for the service, termed, “The New Ghana Prisons Service”, a transformative agenda centred on modern correctional practices, staff capacity building, automation, agricultural expansion, and industrialisation.
Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie said her administration would work to reduce unsafe practices in prison operations and elevate the professionalism of officers through training and improved working conditions.
“Prison officers work under immense stress in uncongenial environments, it is time we tell our story and reposition the image of the Service. Under my leadership, the dehumanising aspects of the job will be addressed with the introduction of automation and modern tools.”
She said the “Director-General’s Kitchen Support Project” would be used to improve the nutrition of the inmates while commercialising and supporting skills development in areas such as tailoring, carpentry, welding, masonry, and plumbing.
Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie further pledged an inclusive leadership style, and assured officers that their voices would be incorporated into decision-making.
Delivering the sermon at the ceremony, Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church, Rev. Dr Godwin Tito Agyei, exhorted the audience to do their best in every sphere of life and service.
His message, drawn from Mark 14:6-9, centred on the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive oil—an act initially criticised but later affirmed by Christ as memorable and honourable.
He explained that when individuals commit themselves wholeheartedly to a cause, especially in service to God and mankind, their efforts will not go unnoticed—by heaven or by men.
BY STEPHANIE BIRIKORANG
