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The Ghana Prisons Service has inaugurated a clinic at the James Camp to enhance access to health care for inmates, officers and the surrounding community.
Last Friday’s inauguration marked a milestone in ongoing efforts to transform the country’s correctional facilities into a more humane, efficient and rehabilitative system.
The clinic has an Outpatient Department (OPD), a pharmacy, a theatre for minor surgical procedures, separate wards for males and females, and a VIP ward.
Inaugurating the facility on behalf of the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, the Chief Director at the Ministry, Solomon Tetteh Mensah, said the facility was a reflection of the government’s commitment to treating every life with dignity, whether free or in custody.
He explained that the project aligned with the government’s “Think Prisons 360 Degrees” reform initiative, which seeks to rebrand the Prisons Service, improve staff and inmate welfare, and modernise correctional facilities.
He also said the healthcare delivery in the country’s prisons had long faced challenges, forcing inmates and officers to rely on limited infirmaries and external referrals.
“This facility will bring health care closer, making it easier to diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses among inmates and officers. It will also serve the surrounding community,” Mr Mensah said.
Mr Mensah further appealed to civil society, faith-based organisations, the private sector, and development partners to support the service.
“A society is judged not only by how it treats its best, but also by how it cares for its most vulnerable. Improving our prisons cannot be achieved by the government alone; it requires the partnership of all stakeholders,” he said.
He also urged the Prisons Service to maintain the facility to continue serving inmates, officers, and the community for years to come.
The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon, John Setor Dumelo, pledged his personal support to equip the new facility.
“With my little support, I will help equip this clinic so that it becomes well-known in the community,” he said.
Drawing inspiration from a recent visit to Kenyan prisons, the Deputy Minister, who is also an ardent farmer, urged the Ghana Prisons Service to expand its farming projects nationwide.
“They have over 60 acres of maize, cocoa, and other crops, and I was impressed.
I hope and pray that our Prisons Service will establish similar farms across the country. We need to eat healthy and feed ourselves so that the clinics we build will have fewer people coming in,” he said.
The Director General of Prisons, DGP Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, said six prison infirmaries across the country had been upgraded, with plans advanced for an ultra-modern national prison hospital.
She commended the government, development partners, corporate institutions, and other stakeholders for their contributions towards the project.
Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie said the Prisons Service still faced significant hurdles, including inadequate professional health staff, insufficient health data systems, a shortage of medical equipment, and limited space for health facilities, explaining that the Service was mitigating these gaps through partnerships with the Ghana Health Service and by deploying specialists to prisons in Kumasi and Koforidua.
