Rehabilitation of Offenders in Ghana: A Study of Nsawam Medium Security Prison
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Date
2016
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Ghana Social Science Journal
Abstract
Serving a prison sentence is a conventional treatment of convicts in
modern corrections. The objectives include reformation and
rehabilitation so that the offenders can lead law-abiding lives after
discharge. Yet, some of these offenders re-offend again either once or
several times. The questions posed by this paper include the following.
What are the major forms of rehabilitation programmes available to
offenders in Ghana prisons? Do most offenders have adequate access to
this formal institutional support? If so, what are the effects on their
attitudes and reintegration? In addressing these questions, a sample of 87
respondents drawn from the Nsawam Medium Security Prison including
the recidivists, family members of the recidivists, prison officers, social
workers and prison evangelists were purposively engaged in in-depth
interviews. The findings suggest that rehabilitation of offenders in Ghana
is ineffective due to the absence of offence-focused treatments,
inadequate state funding, inadequate skilled personnel, overcrowding
and short sentences, lack of interest, inconvenience and security protocol
as well as the lack of programme intensity and integrity. The paper
recommended that penal reforms in Ghana should shift from being
punitive centred to a rehabilitative oriented.
Description
Ghana Social Science Journal, 13(2), 124–148.
Keywords
Rehabilitation, reintegration, recidivism, prison, penal policy