PRISON INMATES TO SUPPORT IMPROVEMENT IN SANITATION IN KUMASI

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly is set to collaborate with the Kumasi Central Prisons to ensure improvement in sanitation at the Central Business District (CBD).

This was known when the new Kumasi Mayor, Hon. Richard Ofori-Agyeman Boadi paid a working visit to the Kumasi Central Prisons on Monday April 14, 2025.

The visit was also to familiarize himself with the conditions at the prisons including the current state of the cells, their meals, logistics and their challenges.

According to him, about 50 inmates will be trained to form a Prison Cleaning Gang and stationed at various vantage points within the CBD where they will help in intermittent cleaning from 8am to 2pm daily and also assist in impounding stray animals in the CBD.

He said the KMA will provide logistics for this initiative and hinted that it will also fetch income for the inmates and the prisons service in general.

The Ashanti Regional Commander of the Ghana Prison Service, DDP ING. James B. Mwinyelle who received the Mayor and his entourage thanked the Mayor for the visit and added that the initiative was something welcoming and promised to collaborate fully to ensure its success, saying, “it is something workable and doable “.

He said a major challenge confronting his outfit was overcrowding since the Prison which was initially built to house 500 inmates was now accommodating about 2,458. He appealed to government for increased support especially in terms of feeding grants, which he described as woefully inadequate.

The Mayor, who was accompanied by Heads of Department at the KMA later toured the Prisons yard and interacted with some of the inmates who were serving various sentences.