Rehabilitation of Offenders in Ghana: A Study of Nsawam Medium Security Prison

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.