Accra, 0ct. 10, GNA - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) are undertaking a project that would strengthen human rights and promote access to justice in the prisons.

To kick start the project the UNDP presented television sets; DVD recorders and players; photocopiers; printers; digital cameras and other gadgets worth 90,000 dollars to the GPS to be used in training inmates to acquire skills.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony on Wednesday, Mr Shigeki Komatsubara, Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP, said through the partnership, the UNDP hoped to reduce barriers to access to justice. He said this year's project would be the first of a four-year programme developed to strengthen the capacity of the Service to meet its mandate and consolidate good governance and respect for human rights in the penal system. The project would include capacity building and training for prison officers to respect the human rights of prisoners and other educational programmes for the inmates to be made aware of their constitutional rights as well. He said the UNDP would collaborate with the Ghana Education Service and the President's Special Initiative on Distance Education as well key human rights institutions such as the Judicial Service, Legal Aid Scheme and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

Mr Komatsubara expressed the hope that the project would assist in supporting the vision of the Service to meet its international human rights obligations and further invite more donor support. Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of The Interior, said the UNDP's project fell in line with efforts to change the public perception of the Prisons to that of a reformatory rather than a punitive Service. He said reforming inmates and providing them with skills was essential to prevent them from engaging in similar crimes that took them prison since they would come out with skills to contribute effectively to national development.

Mr William K. Asiedu, Director General Prisons, said the Service was pleased with the UNDP's decision to support it with 100,000 dollars each year for four years to enable it to pursue its human resource development agenda.

He said the project would begin with junior high school and computer training programmes at Nsawam and that a state of the art computer laboratory at Nsawam Prisons would be opened soon to make the Service responsive to current changes.

He called on the Ghana Education Service to consider the Service's proposal to extend the Ghana Education Trust Fund to support the training of the 13,000 inmates, who could contribute to development when trained.

Mr Asiedu also called on civil society organisations to come to the aid of the Service to help to create a safer and better environment for development.