Accra, April 4, GNA - Officials in charge of the female unit of the James Fort Prison in Accra have appealed to the government and other stakeholders to help mobilise more budgetary support towards the provision of basic needs of the inmates. They said the current 29 inmates of the unit lacked basic facilities including beds, blankets, clothing, sanitary pads and toiletries.

Assistant Superintendence of Prison (ASP) Evelyn Armah, top management officer of the unit made the appeal when members of Tema Community Four Chapter of Women's Aglow (TCFCWA) donated foodstuffs, toiletries and clothing all valued at more than three million cedis to the unit on Monday.

ASP Armah made a special appeal to sanitary pads manufacturers to consider donating some of their products to the inmates because there was no money to buy the needed quantity for the inmates. She commended the government for providing the needs of the inmates but said this needed to be improved.

She said prisons were places of reform and that it was rather pathetic that people neglected their relations when they are imprisoned. In a short prayer before the presentation, Madam Gladys Lamptey, President of TCFCWA called on the inmates to see their stay in the prison not as punishment but rather as a place God wanted to use to bring the needed change in them.

"Being in prison is not the end of the world for you, but rather the beginning of the change God wants to bring to your life".