Ibadan Correctional Centre solicits support for inmates’ education

INTEGRATING prison inmates back into society requires collaboration of organisations and well-meaning individuals with government.

  Assistant Controller in Charge of Welfare, Agodi Correctional Centre, Ibadan, Oluwatosin Otubu, stated this while receiving laptops donated by a non-governmental organisation, Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation, on Friday.

  Mrs Otubu, who expressed appreciation to the NGO for the gesture, explained that the materials came at a time they were desperately needed as the inmates need to be prepared for life after prison.

  Also, the Assistant Controller of Corrections (ACC), Mr Olusola Ayodele said about 85 percent working age people dominated the correctional centre, thus the knowledge the inmates would acquire through the facilities would not only make them useful to the society but also make them responsible citizens of the country.

  Earlier, Head, Managing Director ,Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation based in Ile Ife, Oluwatoyin Ilesanmi, who said her organisation in conjunction with an NGO, Nigeria Connect, based in U.S.A was deeply concerned about the fate of inmates after leaving prison, pointed out that the laptops would assist the learning process of the inmates.

    Mrs Ilesanmi explained that Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation is focused on providing automated libraries, books, as well as virtual library resources in form of computers, printers, scanners and other facilities to prisons to prevent a situation where the active working age class inmates lose out in the technology-driven world.

   She urged the inmates to avail themselves of the opportunity the facilities provided to upgrade their learning skills.

  One of the inmates, who also doubles as a teacher, who appreciated the organisation for providing adequate educative materials for the centre’s inmate, called for more assistance from well meaning Nigerians.