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Prisoners will soon be involved in the National Sanitation Day exercise introduced by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

Chairman of the Prisons Council, Pastor Stephen Wengam who disclosed this on the Point Blank session of Eyewitness News on Friday, said they are in consultation with the Ministry for approval.

He explained that the type of prisoners who would be involved in the exercise are those who had few months or years to complete their term, adding that the move is geared generating income for them. 

“We are talking to the Ministry of Local Government so that we can use those who have a few years to go or those with minor offences will do the cleaning so that those monies we pay to the waste management companies are paid to the prison then we will pay a certain percentage to the prisoners.”

His comment follows a mutiny which happened at the Kumasi Central Prison involving some of the prisoners and the police during an evacuation exercise after a fire outbreak.

One inmate was shot dead in the process.

The Chairman further indicated that the monies generated from the exercise would be given to the prisoners to fend for themselves when they are finally released from prison.

Pastor Wengam noted that the move will also help the Prison Service to improve on its infrastructure since “some of the prisons were not built to accommodate inmates; they were old facilities that were converted.”

He also lamented about the number of years that some prisoners are sentenced to saying, it was not the best.

“What we tried to do earlier was to establish the camp prisons, so that those with low sentencing  or have done one fifth of their sentencing are moved there. What happens is that these days the sentencing are too high, 20 years, 15 years, 120 years. So whereas the camp prisons are free…because of the high sentencing you cannot move the high risk prisoners to the camps.”

Pastor Wengam also called on corporate organizations to come to their aid and also help provide accommodation facilities for their staff adding that they have a lot of lands which are being encroached upon.