VIDEO: Talent Behind Bars: Juvenile inmates in need of support

The Senior Correctional Centre Borstal Home at Roman Ridge in Accra is calling on the state and private entities to come to their aid.

The centre houses juveniles who have committed various degrees of crimes, with the aim of transforming them and making them fit for society.

While there, they are trained and equipped with skills and education that make them useful in society when discharged.

In an interaction with some of the inmates at their facility, they exhibited various crafts ranging from African print handbags, purses, sandals, ceramic, wooden handicrafts among others.

The inmates urged the general public to make purchases from them to support their work. Eager to be released to go home, they called on the general public not to stigmatize them when they get back into society, but to support them to integrate properly.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Greater Accra Regional Ghana Prisons Service, ASP Loretta Valentina Amoah, the facility needs mutually beneficial relations to run smoothly.

“We want private-public partnerships. We want partnerships that, if possible, can adapt our workshops and help equip the place and help train the boys so that if they are out there, they can be employable’, she told Berla Mundi.

“Individuals who will like to support these boys to set up so that if they are discharged, they don’t become a liability to society again are very much needed.  We need a school bus for the centre to convey the children to school daily. What we are using is for the service, we would want one for the centre. Anyone who may want to help us with that will be duly appreciated”, she appealed.

She called on parents to monitor their children at all times and be aware of all that they are involved in to safeguard them against falling into trouble that may lead them to Borstal homes.

A borstal home is a type of detention centre that houses juveniles who have committed various degrees of crimes, with the sole aim of transforming them and making them fit for society again.