Koforidua, July 6, GNA - Twenty officers of the Ghana Prisons Service, working at the Koforidua Prisons, are paying for their accommodation and utility bills since the Service could not provide them with rooms at the barracks as required by their service conditions. This came to light when the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, paid a visit to the Koforidua Prisons and inspected conditions at the barracks and the facilities at the prisons. This situation, according to the affected officers, was making life very difficult for them and their dependants because apart from the rent and utility bills they were also faced with transportation cost since their homes were far from the prisons.

They therefore appealed to the minister to use his office to intervene on their behalf to enable them to receive what was due them as per their service conditions.

A senior officer who spoke with the Ghana News Agency on condition of anonymity confirmed the story and explained that the Service had a system called "barracks annex" where government paid for a group of personnel living in a rented house together.

He explained that in the case of the affected officers at Koforidua, the Service could not extend the annex facilities to them because they were all not staying in the same compound but in different houses.

He said so long as the affected officers were not staying in one rented house to be labelled as barracks annex, the Ghana Prisons Service could not reimburse them.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo assured them that he would take up their matter to alleviate their plight and added that the deplorable condition of the rooms in the barracks would also be given a facelift. To the inmates whom he later donated beddings and 30 bags of mini rice, he advised them to show remorse for their actions by accepting their situation as an opportunity to change their lifestyles. He appealed to the public not to shun prisoners but give them the chance to be able to integrate in to society after serving their sentences.