TRADE-TRAINING PROJECTS

The ministry has over the years invested heavily in trade-training projects in the prisons to equip inmates with skills for self-employment when they are released.

They have included mushrooms and snails’ projects at Nsawam (now defunct), expansion of the vegetable farming at James Camp, expansion of the bakery project at the female wings of the Nsawam Prisons and new bakeries at Kumasi, Ho, Sunyani and Sekondi-Takoradi. Block making projects were established at Ho and at Sekondi-Takoradi. Cloth-weaving project was developed for Wa, and a construction of a carpentry shed for a workshop was also built at Sunyani.

PREACHING

Members of the Ministry and church groups visit the prisons to preach and share fellowship with the inmates on every Sunday. Holy Communion Services are held once a month in the prisons by ordained Ministers of the Ministry. The Presbyterian Church of Ghana provides the Ministry with all the inputs needed for the communion: communion wine and wafers.

LITERACY PROGRAMS

Although the ministry has not conducted research on the link between crime and literacy, it is evident from reports of other missions in prisons especially in the United States that children and young people that did not have opportunity for formal education and advance their academic careers were more likely to be involved in criminal activities.

Investment of the Prison Ministry in literacy programs focus on the Senior Correctional Centre where a team from the ministry work with teachers at the school to improve the academic life of young people. The Ministry has provided learning tools such as computers, TV/VCR equipment and books to the facility.

Other services provided include counseling for released prisoners and issuance of a letter of introduction to be given to Ministers of Churches they would worship as their spiritual nurture.