By Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
Assistant Superintendent of Prisons, Desire Klutse, has stated that prisons can be an incubator for future generations of entrepreneurs and should be seen as a place for reflection, not condemnation.
Speaking at the Ghana Entrepreneurship Forum in Accra on November 8, 2025, Mr. Klutse, along with a delegation of officers from the Nsawam Prison Complex, expressed excitement at being at the forum and highlighted the Ghana Prisons Service’s shift from punishment and confinement to reformation and rehabilitation.
According to him, the service endeavors to train inmates in various skills, including woodwork, tailoring, baking, smock making, metal fabrication and welding, bead making, and entrepreneurship, to equip them with employable skills upon release.
Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Klutse emphasized that prison should be a place for reflection and rehabilitation, rather than a destination for hardened criminals.
“A lot of people think prison is a place hardened criminals are sent and condemned for the entirety of their sentence, but that is not true, it is a place for reflection and rehabilitation,” he said.
He cited the example of Simon Awolume, a young man who was discharged from prison two months ago with skills in garment making and an industrial sewing machine.
He added that research has shown that inmates who acquire entrepreneurial skills while in prison are less likely to reoffend.
To address the issue of recidivism, Director-General of Prisons, Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, has initiated the Prisons 360 program, aimed at industrializing and expanding existing prison industries.
The program focuses on providing inmates with employable skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. According to Mr. Klutse, inmates are producing various items which could be sold to generate income.
He also called on the public to collaborate with them to support the rehabilitation of inmates. “The Service has vast land at Nsawam, and officers and inmates with agricultural backgrounds can grow raw food materials for entrepreneurs in the food business.”
The Ghana Entrepreneurship Forum, themed, “Elevating through entrepreneurship, empowering generations of innovators and entrepreneurs,” had thought leaders and entrepreneurs in attendance, including the President of the Africa Entrepreneurs Alliance, Eunice Botchwey.
