RECRUIT COURSE 112 PASS OUT
By: Kwasi Arhin, UPSA intern
Four hundred and twenty-three (423) recruit officers of the Ghana Prisons Service have passed out as Second Class Officers to begin their roles as Prisons officers to ensure the safe custody, welfare, reformation and rehabilitation of offenders.
The recruit course, which is the 112th of the Service, comprised two hundred and sixty-nine (269) young men and one hundred and fifty-four (154) young women drawn from backgrounds such as nursing, agriculture, technical, sports, secretarial and general duties.
Reviewing the passing out parade at the Prison Officers’ Training School at Roman Ridge in Accra recently, The Minister for the Interior, Honourable Ambrose Dery, in a speech congratulated the recruits for successfully completing their training and putting up an impressive performance on parade.
He told them that the Prisons job is a career that requires an outright devotion to duty, and absolute sacrifice of time and energy, and that they will be expected to work twenty four hours a day and seven days a week.
He said, ‘having been taken through nine months of rigorous training in the academic, practical and regimental fields throughout the period, you are adequately prepared for the task ahead. Let me emphasize that indiscipline has no place in the Service’.
‘I would like to remind you that, you are seen as the first line of the Service, and the importance of how you carry yourselves cannot be overstated. Maintain the highest standard of respect and professional conduct at all time’, the Minister advised the recruits.
The recruits, as part of their training, were taken through courses such as Prison duties, Prisoner Information Management, Penal Statistics and Penal Law. The rest are First Aid, Inmates’ Sentence Computation, Interpersonal Skills, Foot and Rifle Drill, Taekwondo, and Judo.
Awards were given to some recruit officers who distinguished themselves during the training. Recruit Officer Franklin Tsatsu Atsu received the award for the Over-All-Best, Recruit Officer Luke Kuryang received the Best in Order of Merit Award (Academics), Recruit Officer Saraphina Davies got the Commandant’s Award, and Recruit Officer Richard Baidoo had the Best in Drill.
The recruits reported to the training school for the first phase of their training on Friday 9th November 2018. After an initial six weeks of rigorous paramilitary training, they were dispatched to prisons establishments across the country on practical attachment to expose them to the rudiments of the prison work.
Other dignitaries present were the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Honuorable Lydia Seyram Alhassan; the Director-General of Prison, Mr. Patrick Darko Missah; some members of the Prisons Directorate; Commandant of Prison Officers’ Training School, Deputy Director of Prisons Samuel Adjei-Attah; Alhaji Abdulai Mumuni Bawumia, Special Advisor to the Interior Minister; Prisons Regional Commanders; and representatives of sister security services.
