‘My officers are suffering’ – Director-General of Prisons calls for welfare interventions

The Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, has described the conditions under which some prison officers work as “hell”, appealing for welfare interventions, including a contagious disease allowance, to improve their working conditions and protect their well-being.

She has appealed to the Public Accounts Committee t to improve conditions of service for prison officers, particularly through better remuneration and the introduction of a contagious disease allowance for officers exposed to potentially infectious inmates.

Speaking before the committee on Tuesday, October 20, Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie said prison officers endured difficult working conditions despite not having committed any criminal offence themselves.

“The Ghana Prison Service, working as a prison officer, is hell. It has a psychological effect, emotional effect, physical effect,” she said.

She explained that prison officers were required to work and live in the same environment as convicted persons, exposing them to many of the difficult conditions associated with incarceration.

“Everything about a prison officer is highly challenging, because the prison officer, who is not convicted of any offence, is compelled to live in the same space as somebody who is convicted,” she said.

According to her, the consequences of these conditions extend beyond the workplace, with the average prison officer facing considerable psychological pressure.

“What it means is that every bad condition in that environment is directly linked to the prison officer, who has not committed any offence. So the average prison officer is usually depressed,” she added.

Poor conditions threaten recruitment

Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie also raised concerns about the Ghana Prisons Service’s ability to attract qualified and motivated personnel, pointing to recruitment trends that she said suggested a lack of interest in joining the service.

She said the number of people who sought to purchase recruitment forms for the Prisons Service was significantly lower than the figures recorded for other security agencies during the last recruitment exercise.

She warned that the trend should concern policymakers, as it suggested that prospective applicants were increasingly reluctant to pursue careers in the service.

“The last recruitment that we did, when you look at the trend of how people purchase the forms, gave me a very serious implication, or a concern, because the people who wanted to buy the prison forms were far fewer than all the other agencies, which means that people are not ready to be prison officers,” she said.

The Director-General attributed the situation to the difficult working environment and what she described as inadequate salaries.

She argued that the country needed to recognise the risks and demands associated with prison work and provide additional compensation to make the profession more attractive.

“Because the environment is toxic, the salary is not too good, and we must begin to compensate for these things as part of salary as a country,” she said.

She added that improving remuneration and conditions of service was necessary to attract the right people to the service and ensure that officers could effectively carry out their responsibilities.

Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie expressed hope that her appeal to the committee would help the public and policymakers better appreciate the challenges facing prison officers and the need for urgent support.

Call for contagious disease allowance

A major concern raised by the Director-General was the long-standing demand for a contagious disease allowance for prison officers who face the risk of exposure to infectious diseases while performing their duties.

She said the issue had been under consideration for a considerable period, but argued that the current approach to the allowance did not adequately address the risks confronting officers across the prison system.

Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie noted that allowances were paid to personnel at Ankaful Prison because the facility had been designated as a contagious disease prison.

However, she maintained that the greatest risk could lie elsewhere, particularly in facilities where the health status of inmates had not yet been established.

She explained that prisoners sent to a designated contagious disease facility would generally have been diagnosed with a relevant illness before their transfer. Officers working in other prison facilities, by contrast, could be exposed to infectious diseases before the conditions of inmates were identified.

“For me, the biggest challenge is not those who are even working in the contagious disease prison. Because by the time we are taking a prisoner there, we would have diagnosed him as having a disease,” she said. “The danger, rather, is in the spaces where we are yet to know whether the prisoners have the contagious disease or not.”

She argued that officers working in these settings should also be considered for the allowance because they could face exposure while caring for inmates whose medical status remained unknown.

“They, rather, are not being paid that allowance. So it’s a very humble appeal,” she told the committee.

Appeals for targeted financial support

The Director-General urged PAC to prioritise addressing this gap in the allowance system, arguing that the financial implications would be relatively small compared with the potential benefits for officers’ welfare.

She said the government and relevant authorities could begin by resolving the issue of the contagious disease allowance before considering broader salary-related concerns.

“The margin is very little. I believe that before we look at all other salaries, if we can work on that, at least it will be a step in the right direction to ensure that my officers are somehow taken good care of,” she said.

Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie maintained that better welfare arrangements would not only improve the well-being of prison officers but also strengthen their ability to discharge their duties in accordance with the law.

She said providing officers with appropriate support would give her greater confidence in enforcing the law while ensuring that personnel were not left to bear the burden of difficult working conditions without adequate compensation.

“And I’ll have the moral courage and justification to be implementing the laws as they are,” she said.

The Director-General reiterated her appeal to PAC to consider the concerns raised and take steps to improve the welfare of prison officers.