The Ashanti Regional Commander of Prisons and Officer-in-Charge of the Kumasi Central Prison, James B. Mwinyelle, has identified stigmatization as a major challenge facing female convicts.
According to him, most of the female inmates prefer to stay in the prison after serving their jail terms, rather than going home due to the fear of stigmatization.
“Most of them will also go home and return to the prison again with a different count due to the public stigma encountered,” said the commander.
He urged Ghanaians to welcome ex-convicts devoid of stigmatization to help in the reformation process.
He raised the concern when the Ashanti regional prisons chaplain, Rev. DSP Stella Ama Katso Anku, donated pieces of cloth to all female prison inmates across Ghana, while preaching against stigmatization against female prisoners.
According to her, most females lose their families and marriage when arrested and jailed, which has a psychological impact on their lives.
Speaking to Adom News during her donation of clothes to female prisons in the Ashanti region, she also noted the high rate of stigmatization pushes most of the females to overstay in the prison.
“Most women appear in the prison, and their families and husbands will abandon them, but it is opposite at the male prison, so it is now time to desist from such stigmatization,” she said.
Rev. Katso’s Amenuveve Outreach Ministry has for 19 years embarked on this donation project to support the female inmates.
Her gesture is to put smiles and give hope to the female inmates and to call on Ghanaians to stop the stigma on the female inmates.
Receiving the items on behalf of the Kumasi Central Prisons, Mr. James Mwinyelle, expressed profound gratitude to Rev. Stella Ama Katso Anku and Amenuveve Outreach Ministry for the kind gesture.
He commended the ministry for its continuous support to the Ghana Prisons Service and described the donation as timely and impactful, particularly for the female inmates.
Source: Joseph Obeng
