THE IMPACT OF TRAINING ON RIOT CONTROL IN THE TAMALE CENTRAL PRISON OF THE NORTHERN REGION

Abstract

The study examined the impact of training in riot control of prison officers and their ability to deliver an effective professional service in the Tamale central prison. Through Yemane’s sampling technique the study selected 125 prison officers to respond to the study. The study adopted stratified sampling and simple random sampling technique to select respondents based on whether they have been trained on riot control or not. The findings revealed that the major cause of prison riot in the Tamale central prison was inmates being poor food and water which represented 25.6% as the highest cause according to their experience. About 20.8% of the respondents also reported that violating inmates’ right in the prison also caused prison riots. Overcrowding also caused riot representing 12% of the total sample. However about 68% of prison officers reported that overcrowding in the Tamale central prison was as a result of large numbers of detention of prisoners on remand. The multiple linear regression estimation revealed that the gender of a prison officer, level of education, number of years served as a prison officer, access to rehabilitation and reformation workshop tools and training in riot control in the prison were the variables that significantly determined prison officers’ ability to control riot. However 75% of the prison officers reported that they are challenged with the adequate number of prison officers to control prison riot, whiles 36.8% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the tools and other resources at their disposal. More so prison officers are posed with high health risk managing inmates as they do not receive regular medical checkup getting contact with inmates infected with contagious diseases in the central prison. The study recommended that prison officers needs regular training to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to perform effectively for them to deliver on their role of maintaining order and reforming prisoners serving their jail term in the prison.