Rehabilitation in Ghana: Assessing Prison Conditions and Effectiveness of Interventions for Incarcerated Adults

Boakye, Kofi, Akoensi, Thomas D and Baffour, Frank D (2022) Rehabilitation in Ghana: Assessing Prison Conditions and Effectiveness of Interventions for Incarcerated Adults. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Rehabilitation in Criminal Justice. Springer Nature, pp. 201-218. ISBN 9783031143755

Text Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 22 November 2024. Download (268kB)

Abstract

We assess the extent to which the penal system in Ghana has adopted rehabilitation as a fundamental principle and a means to attain desistance from offending and examine the history of incarceration in Ghana, how the advent of colonialism supplanted the traditional rehabilitation approach of restitution and community reintegration and rehabilitation ideals as a process of restoring people who have offended to full citizenship and reaffirming the fundamental belief in the dignity of the person. The chapter reveals prison conditions violate rehabilitation principles and outlines the implications of such violations for the individual and society. It is seen that prisons are underfunded, overcrowded and understaffed and that the system is focused primarily on safe custody of persons serving prison sentences. Rehabilitation remains on the periphery. Where rehabilitation programmes exist, they are focused primarily on vocational training and basic skills acquisition. The review found a disconnection between existing legislations and recent efforts to reform prisons to ensure that they meet their reformative goals. We conclude with some reflections on how rehabilitation could be reimagined and articulated within a resource-constrained context.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Keywords:	Social Science, Rehabilitation, Prison
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic User
Depositing User:	Symplectic User
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2022 16:43
Last Modified:	13 Dec 2022 16:43
URI:	https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/708141

Actions (login required)

Edit Item