Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) Johann Nartey, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, said parents must be responsible enough in the upbringing of their children.

This would reduce, considerably, the number of wayward children, child delinquency and miscreants in the society, he said.

ASP Nartey made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani, explaining that broken homes also contributed to the menace and, therefore, appealed to parents and guardians to dutifully raise their children and wards.

He said parents must effectively monitor the sort of friends their children made to save them from ending up being delinquent.

ASP Nartey mentioned stealing as the highest crime recorded at the Sunyani Central Prison, which was 211, defilement; 141, armed-robbery; 103, and Narcotics; 83, adding that the youngest prisoner was 18 years whilst the oldest was more than 70 years.

He said the inmates were given both formal and informal training to equip them with employable skills to create jobs for themselves after serving their sentences. They were taught shoe making, soap making, rearing of animals, sewing, carpentry and masonry, ASP Nartey added.

He entreated parents, guardians, families and communities to happily receive inmates back home and assist them to be integrated into the society. “If the stigmatisation is not stopped, ex-convicts cannot make good use of their talents to benefit the society,” ASP Nartey said.

He suggested that the Service be provided with scanning devices to effectively detect and prevent foreign and unwanted materials into the prison yards.

ASP Nartey said some of the inmates who received formal education in the yard had passed the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination(WASCE), with some moving further to obtain Diploma in Business Studies (DBS).