Doing Time: Young People and the Rhetoric of Juvenile Justice in Ghana

In this chapter, we review the juvenile justice system in Ghana and how it responds to young people in conflict with the law. There is a dearth of theoretical and empirical research on juvenile justice in Ghana and Africa more generally. Yet these contexts provide useful sites for exploration of fundamental issues about juvenile justice. Among such issues are the impact of colonial history and neoliberal policy transfers on treatment of young people caught up in the justice system. The chapter provides a background to youth justice and the conditions of incarcerated young people in Ghana. We argue that colonial history and neoliberal youth justice policy transfers have dislocated the traditional system of justice. This dislocation has, in turn, created tensions and contradictions in juvenile justice administration in Ghana and Africa. Although in theory Ghana’s juvenile justice system appears to conform to many of the international standards and expectations, in practice the system undermines the rights of children and young people in conflict with the law. We conclude with suggestions about ways to address some of the challenges confronting juvenile justice administration in Ghana.