University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh UNIVERSITY OF GHANA COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES LIFE AFTER SERVING TIME IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES: A STUDY OF SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF JUVENILES IN ACCRA, GHANA BY SYLVIA KOTEY 10599818 THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MPHIL SOCIOLOGY DEGREE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY JULY, 2018 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DECLARATION I, Sylvia Kotey, hereby declare that this thesis presented is my own work produced from research undertaken under supervision of Professor Dan-Bright Dzorgbo and Professor Steve Tonah at the Department of Sociology and that no part of it has been presented for another degree elsewhere. All references have been duly acknowledged. Sylvia Kotey DATE (STUDENT) Professor Dan-Bright Dzorgbo (PHD) DATE (SUPERVISOR) Professor Steve Tonah (PHD) DATE (SUPERVISOR) i University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my parent, Winifred Noye and Samuel Neequaye Kotey, my two sisters; Adelaide Odonkor and Juanita Naa Adei Kotey not forgetting my spiritual father Pastor John Amankrah for their prayers and support. I also dedicate this work to Dr. Isaac Dasmani, who saw this potential in me and encouraged me to pursue a master’s programme. ii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ACKNOWLEDGMENT Most importantly, I want to thank God for his favour, grace and protection throughout this Master’s programme. Secondly to Young Offenders and their family members who volunteered to be part of this research, without whom the study would have not been possible. I am also thankful to the Prison officers and the Executive Director of CRRECENT who open their doors for me to conduct my research. To my Supervisors Prof. Dan-Bright Dzorgbo and Prof. Steve Tonah for their constructive feedbacks, encouragement, patience and direction in ensuring that I produced a good work. I am thankful to Dr. Isaac Boafo for his constructive feedback and assistance that helped in ensuring that I focus my thought in doing the needful. My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Robert Ame (Associate Professor) at the Criminology Department in Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada for his immense contribution in ensuring that I put up my best. My sincere gratitude also goes to all the lecturers at the Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, who in diverse ways supported me in the course of my studies. iii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................................... i DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT ........................................................................................................................ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF ABBREVATIONS ................................................................................................................. ix ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ x CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background to the study ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Problem Statement ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research Objectives ................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Definition of key concepts ......................................................................................................... 5 1.6 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................................... 7 1.7 Organisation of the study ........................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................................... 8 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 8 2.2 Models of Juvenile Justice ......................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 The Welfare Model .............................................................................................. 9 2.2.2 The Justice or Retributive Model ......................................................................... 9 2.2.3 The Restorative Justice Model ........................................................................... 10 2.3 Effects of Institutionalization on Juvenile Reformation .......................................................... 12 2.4 The Concept of Reintegration .................................................................................................. 14 2.5 Needs of Youth during Reintegration ...................................................................................... 16 2.5.1 Family Engagement ........................................................................................... 16 2.5.2 Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment .................................................... 17 2.5.3 Housing .............................................................................................................. 18 2.5.4 Targeted Educational and Employment Programmes ........................................ 19 iv University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2.6 Types of Reintegration Programmes or Approaches ............................................................... 20 2.6.1 Mentoring ........................................................................................................... 20 2.6.2 Case Management .............................................................................................. 21 2.6.3 Cognitive Behavioural Approach (CBA) ........................................................... 22 2.6.4 Faith-Based Approach (FBA) ............................................................................ 22 2.7 Historical Background to Juvenile Justice in Ghana ............................................................... 23 2.8 CRRECENT and Young Offender Reintegration .................................................................... 26 2.9 Review of related studies on the Justice system of Ghana ...................................................... 28 2.10 Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................................... 32 2.11 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................. 33 CHAPTER Three .................................................................................................................................. 34 Research methodS ................................................................................................................................ 34 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 34 3.2 Research Approach .................................................................................................................. 34 3.3 Research Design ...................................................................................................................... 35 3.4 Study Sites and Study Participants .......................................................................................... 35 3.5 The Sampling Technique and Rationale .................................................................................. 36 3.6 Instrument ................................................................................................................................ 38 3.7 Data collection Procedure ........................................................................................................ 38 3.8 Data Analysis procedure .......................................................................................................... 40 3.9 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER Four .................................................................................................................................... 43 AFTER SERVING TIME IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, what next? ........................................ 43 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 43 4.2 Demographic characteristics of young offenders. .................................................................... 43 4.3 Understanding the life Experiences of Juvenile Offenders ...................................................... 45 4.3.1 Experience before incarceration ........................................................................ 45 4.3.2 Court experiences of young offenders and their Families. ................................ 49 4.3.3 Experiences of offenders during detention. ....................................................... 51 4.3.4 Experience after release ..................................................................................... 54 4.4 Crime Committed by Young offenders .................................................................................... 56 4.4.1 Why Young Offenders Committed those offenses ............................................ 57 4.5 Training programmes available in the Correctional Institutions .............................................. 60 4.5.1 Education/ Vocational ........................................................................................ 60 v University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.5.2 Treatment Programme ....................................................................................... 63 4.5.3 Effectiveness of the available educational/vocational training and treatment programmes...................................................................................................................... 65 4.6 Mechanism for pre and post-reintegration of young offenders in the correctional institution 68 4.6.1 Pre-release Reintegration ................................................................................... 68 4.6.2 Post-release reintegration ................................................................................... 69 4.7 The role of the family and other relations in reintegration of young offenders ....................... 71 4.7.1 The of role of CRRECENT toward young offender reintegration. ................... 73 4.7.2 CRRECENT Pre-release reintegration .............................................................. 75 4.7.3 CRRECENT Post-release reintegration ............................................................. 76 4.7.4 Impact of CRRECENT reintegration on young offenders ................................. 77 4.8 Discussion of findings.............................................................................................................. 78 CHAPTER Five .................................................................................................................................... 86 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONs AND RECOMMENDATIONs ......................................................... 86 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 86 5.2 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 87 5.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 88 5.4 Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 90 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 92 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................... 101 Appendix A: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR JUVENILES WHO ARE CURRENTLY IN THE CRRECENT PROGRAM. .............................................................................................................. 101 vi University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Respondent List for the study ................................................................................................. 37 Table 2: Socio-demographic characteristics of young offender respondents (N = 10) ......................... 44 Table 3:Type of crimes committed ....................................................................................................... 56 vii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: CRRECENT reintegration 27 Figure 2: Juvenile justice process 33 viii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh LIST OF ABBREVATIONS ACRO - Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders in Ghana ACRWC - African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child CBA - Cognitive Behavioural Approach CHRAJ - Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice CRC - Convention on the Rights of the Child CRRECENT - Child Research and Resource Centre DOVVSU - Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit DSW - Department of Social Welfare FBA- Faith-Based Approach FBO – Faith-Based Organization JJA - Juvenile Justice Act JHS - Junior High School NGO – Non-Governmental Organization SCC - Senior Correctional Centre SHS- Senior High School UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund UN - United Nations UNODC - United Nations Office on Drug and Crime ix University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ABSTRACT Social reintegration of young offenders is a main challenge facing the justice system around the world. In the developed world where parole services exist, ex-offenders are easily reintegrated into the society to rebuild their lives. Although much study has been conducted on the juvenile justice system within the Ghanaian context, there is little knowledge about pre- release and post-release reintegration programmes as well as the role of the community, including the family and social system, faith-based and non- governmental organizations to ensure the reintegration of young offenders into the society. Anecdotal evidence from individuals who have met offenders or ex-offenders seem to indicate that reintegration programmes and community support services are typically absent or ineffective in Ghana. This study sought to fill this gap by using qualitative research approach to analyse the perspectives of correctional service providers, NGOs and key family members of young offenders regarding how young offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society after release from correctional centres. Specifically, the objectives of the research are to examine: the life experiences of juveniles who come into conflict with the law; the kind of training and therapeutic programmes available in the Senior Correctional Centre and its effectiveness; pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes available in Senior Correctional Centre; the roles families (guardian) and neighbour/friends in the reintegration of young offenders; and the contribution of CRRECENT (a local NGO) toward reintegration of young offenders into society. The study conducted in-depth interviews with Prison officers in the Senior Correctional Centre, Staff of Child Research and Resource Centre, young offenders within the CRRECENT reintegration programme who live in Accra and also young offenders who reside in Accra but are not in the CRRECENT reintegration programme. Purposive and respondent-respondent snowball sampling method was used. Also, the researcher visited the Child Research and Resource Centre (CRRECENT), Senior Correctional Centre (SCC) and homes of young x University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh offenders to conduct face-face interviews and in other cases phone interviews were conducted to solicit information. Thematic analyse was used to analyse data. Findings of the study indicated that factors such as lack of family support, parental irresponsibility and peer influences are critical in determining whether a child will come into conflict with the law regardless of his/her socio-economic background. The findings also revealed that judges are always seen to be acting in the “best interest” of young offender. Academic, vocation training programmes and counselling have been the main approach the SCC use to tackle the key barriers that young offenders face when re-entering their community. The study further reveals that counselling is used as a pre-release reintegration programmes to prepare young offenders before they are released into the society. Also, the Senior Correctional Centre does not engage in post-release reintegration programmes such as Parole, their work ends after the young offender is released. To a large extent families and other relations have been supportive in the process of reintegration of juvenile offenders. The NGO, Child Research Resource Centre (CRRECENT) has made immense contributions towards reintegration of young offenders in Ghana. Reintegration of Young offenders into the society can be successfully when they are effectively rehabilitated, they get their families support and finally when they get support from government (Social Welfare), faith-based organizations and non-governmental organisations. xi University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study The aim of juvenile justice systems across the globe is to establish separate systems of treatment distinct from those of adults. This is to prevent the contamination of young offenders in adult correctional institution. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and welfare of the Child (ACRWC) both provide standards on the rights of the child to ensure special treatment of juveniles to bring about rehabilitation and reintegration. By these international instruments, elements of criminal justice systems which include lengthy and punitive legal proceedings are to be avoided. These instruments additionally require a specialized child friendly juvenile justice system that places the “best interest” of the child at its focal point of legislation, policy and practice whiles advancing the child’s sense of dignity and long-lasting reintegration into society ( International NGO Council on Violence against Children, 2013). Since the ratification of these instruments by countries, the number of juvenile offenders globally has been on the increase. The United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF) has estimated that more than 1 million children are behind bars around the world. In the United States alone, more than 60,000 children were locked up in juvenile confinement facilities in 2011 (Human Rights Watch, 2016). However, as prescribed by international conventions, young offenders as compared to adult offenders are to spend less time in correctional facilities. An increase in the number of juveniles in detention thus means an increase in the number of young offenders released back into the society (Sickmund, 2000) for whom provisions for reintegration must be made. 1 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh “Social reintegration is, however, not an issue that can be resolved by legislation and institutions alone. The families of offenders, their immediate circle of friends, and the community have a fundamental role to play in assisting the offenders' return to society and supporting ex-offenders in rebuilding their lives” (United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime, 2006, p. 1). In the developed world where probation and Parole services exist, ex-offenders easily rebuild their relationships with their families, find jobs, access professional treatment for problems such as drug addiction, and in general, can have a positive life strategy. This is accomplished largely through community support. However, in developing countries where probation or parole services are largely non-existent, civil society organizations may play crucial roles (United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime, 2006). In these countries, NGOs and Faith-Based Organization (FBOs) may be the only organisations offering support and assistance to these ex-offenders. In Ghana, although there are pre-release reintegration programmes, there are no formal aftercare or re-entry programmes (ACRO, 2010). The support systems and structures to aid successful reintegration of young offenders into the society are inadequate, thus making the goal of helping to develop the capacity of these young offenders to become responsible and productive citizens, and to foster safe communities often unaccomplished. This then raises concerns about how well young offenders are reintegrated into the society after their released from the correctional centre. 1.2 Problem Statement Juvenile delinquency has over the years become one of the vital social problems every country tries to curb amidst the glaring indication that young offenders are at risk of graduating into adult criminals, if the right nurturance is not given to them (Abrah, 2014; Austin, Johnson, & Gregoriou, 2000; Hess & Drowns, 2010; D. Johnson, 1999; Kuanliang, Sorensen, & 2 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Cunningham, 2008). A major challenge facing the justice system, specifically, the juvenile justice system around the world is the duty of transitioning and reintegrating young offenders from adolescence correctional facilities into the society (Lee, Kara & Annie, 2006). With the absence of effective interventions to achieve reintegration within the community, young offenders who enter the juvenile justice system to the point of incarceration are at risk of continuing their criminal behaviour well into adulthood. This situation has the tendency to create public insecurity, increased victimization, increased government expenditure on crime prevention strategies and lead to problems in the families of the offenders. It is for this reason that this study seeks to assess the training, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes available to young offenders in Ghana. Moreover, there is little knowledge about the role the community, including the family, social system, faith-based and non-governmental organizations play to ensure the reintegration of young offenders into the society. Most of the studies in this area have focused on the adult offenders e.g. (Amenyendzie, 1998; Antwi, 2015; Asare, 2009; Hagan, 2013). Reintegration of a young offenders will require an effective rehabilitation system during detention and effective aftercare treatment when they are released into the society. Asare (2009) have observed that the lack of required personnel and facilities needed to rehabilitate the offenders hinders the reintegration process. He maintains that for the few offenders who get the privilege to undertake rehabilitation activities, the criteria for selection was not based on compulsion but rather on previous experience. Likewise, Hagan (2013) revealed that some challenges of vocational training programmes include poor quality tools/obsolete machines, lack of appropriate equipment, lack of large capital, poor attendance by the inmates and negative perceptions of the vocations. This is a major setback to the post release life of offenders. Furthermore, Amenyendzie (1998) in his study at the senior correctional centre revealed that young offenders had to provide funds to pay for tools before the start of vocational training. Such studies as well 3 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh as anecdotal evidence from individuals who have been in contact with offenders or ex-offenders suggest that support services are typically absent or ineffective in Ghana. According to Asiedu (1999), post-release social and community support services such as the assistance from family members, faith and charity-based organizations (to ensure care) are either inadequate or non- existent. The study therefore contributes to the existence but inadequate knowledge on how young offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society, and the role the family and other organisations play during the reintegration process. 1.3 Research Objectives The main objective of this research is to explore how young offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society after release from the Senior Correctional Centres. More Specifically it seeks to: 1. Describe the life experiences of young offenders who have been released from the Senior Correctional Centre. 2. Assess the skills and training programmes in the Senior Correctional Centre. 3. Assess the pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes in the correctional institution. 4. Examine the role families (guardian) and neighbour/friends play in reintegrating released young offenders into society. 5. Assess the contribution of CRRECENT (a local NGO) towards reintegration of young offenders into the society. 4 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1.4 Research Questions 1. What are the life experiences of these young offenders who come into conflict with the law? 2. What kind of training programmes are available in the correctional institutions and how effective are they? 3. What are the pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes in the Senior Correctional Centre? 4. What roles do families (guardian) and neighbour/friends play in the reintegration of young offenders? 5. What is the contribution of CRRECENT toward reintegration of young offenders into society? 1.5 Definition of key concepts This section defines some key concepts used in the study. Juvenile. Section 1 of the Juvenile Justice Acts, 2003 (ACT 653), of Ghana defines “A juvenile as a person under eighteen years who is in conflict with the law” and “Juvenile offender as a juvenile who has been convicted of an offence for which the court may impose a sentence of imprisonment for one month or upward without the option of a fine”. (Section 60). A Young Offender in this study is a person under 18years or above 18years who came into conflict with the law, was detained in the senior correctional centre and is currently reintegrating into the society. 5 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Social reintegration According to United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime (2006, p. 1), “Social reintegration can be understood as the support given to offenders during re-entry into society following imprisonment”. The period beginning from prosecution to the release and post-release support. Social reintegration in this study refers to post-release reintegration, which is a measure designed to enable young offenders follow a gradual transition from correctional institutions to life outside. It likewise incorporates all social, psychological and other support provided to former juvenile offenders after release by various agencies and organizations (United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime, 2006). Parole Parole also known as Post release reintegration refers to conditional release, which is a measure designed to enable young offenders planned and gradual transition from correctional centres to life outside. It includes social, psychological and other support provided for young after release by the SCC, social welfare department, NGOs and FBOs. Puzzled from the (United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime, 2006) Probation Probation in this the study is the suspension of a jail term that allows a juvenile convicted of a crime the opportunity to remain in the community, instead of going to the correctional centre. Rehabilitation Rehabilitation is “A planned correctional intervention that targets for change internal and/ or social criminogenic factors with the goal of reducing recidivism and, where possible, of improving other aspects of an offender’s life (Cullen & Jonson, 2011, p. 295). The 6 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh rehabilitation programmes in the senior correctional centre would be the vocational, educational treatment programmes. Correctional centre Correctional Centre refers to a reformatory home that provides statutory care and supervision to young offenders as ordered by the courts (Ashiabor, 2014). 1.6 Significance of the Study This study will deepen our understanding on: the factors that tend to predispose young offenders to delinquency; the kind of training and treatment programmes they receive in the SCC; how rehabilitation contributes to the reintegration of these young offenders notwithstanding the fact that, there are inadequate formal reintegration or aftercare programmes in Ghana. It will also contribute to the literature on reintegration in Ghana. This will also aid policy makers to introduce policies and programmes that will educate families and other stakeholders on the need to provide care and support for young offenders reintegrating into society. 1.7 Organisation of the study The study is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 presents the research background, the statement of the problem, the research objectives and research questions, the significance of the study and how the study is organized. Chapter 2 centres around the review of both theoretical and empirical studies to provide a theoretical grounding for the study. Chapter 3 concentrates on the research method by detailing the research process, the research design, the development of the in-depth interview guide and modes of interviews to be conducted. Chapter 4 presents the results of the analysis of data from documentations, organizational reports and field interviews. It also discussed the main findings of the research. Chapter 5 focuses on summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. 7 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The chapter gives a review of existing literature on juvenile justice system and juvenile reintegration as studied by other researchers. The chapter examines the theoretical literature, models of juvenile justice, the effect of correctional facilities of reformation, the concept of reintegration, the needs of the juveniles, the role of CRRECENT, the empirical literature and finally concludes with a summary of the literature review. 2.2 Models of Juvenile Justice The justice system as known today was different in times past where juvenile offenders were treated as adult offenders. For instance, the United States had no justice system for children and juvenile offenders were subjected to capital punishment (R. W. Taylor, Fritsch, & Caeti, 2007). Around the 1800, a group of women in the US advocated for a special treatment of juvenile offenders and this changed attitudes of policy makers of the child welfare system and lead to the introduction of a juvenile justice system in the world. At this nascent stage philosophical orientation about the youth offender was that there was a capacity to rehabilitate the young offender. This is normally refereed as the welfare model of juvenile justice. Around the 1960s, there was a shift in the philosophical orientation of juvenile justice to a redistributive model. Then in the 1980s, there was another change to a restorative model. Next, is a discussion of the different philosophical orientation associated with the juvenile justice system. 8 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2.2.1 The Welfare Model Under the welfare system, it is assumed that the youth or young people are more susceptible and open to rehabilitation than adults. As a result, juvenile courts are more particular about the control, supervision and treatment rather than punishment of young offenders (Odala, 2011). The welfare model is alternatively referred to as the ‘protection model’ and it served as the foundation for the setup of juvenile courts in Western Europe and the United States. Therefore, the juvenile court assumed an essential role in caring and defending the child, and the judge in the court usually undertakes intervention measures to address juvenile crime (Odhiambo, 2010). As such, the main objective of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate the offender rather than punish the offender (Nolasco, 2004). With the objective towards the treatment of juveniles, judges at juvenile court were supported by clinicians, probation officers and social service personnel in order to find the best treatment suitable for the needs of a specific child. Offenders under the welfare model were not considered as rational agents because they were victims of their environment and circumstances. The welfare model came out of the moral intellectual development theory which states that, when the actor is young, his or her behaviour is less likely to be informed by a sense of judgment between right and wrong. However, the model was criticized as violating individuals’ rights, to be discriminatory and paternalistic. This was because children were not given procedural safeguards such as rules of evidence and legal representation. The reliance on the use of institutionalization and protection policies for a long period of time as a result led to the criticism of the welfare model. Hence, the emergence of the justice model (Odala, 2011). 2.2.2 The Justice or Retributive Model The main principle of the justice model was punishment rather than the treatment of juveniles. The motive attached to the justice model is that children are rational human beings and, as such, 9 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh are able to direct their own actions. They have the ability to decide to offend or not to offend and if an individual decides to offend, he or she must be made accountable and must face the right sanctions. In the justice model, juveniles were not seen as victims of circumstances as in the welfare model (Odala, 2011). The justice model focuses on accountability and sanctions rather than welfare. It considers the legal right of young individuals and institutes defined punishment against those found guilty of specific offences. The essential role of the justice system was to determine the extent of culpability of the offender and issue punishment in accordance to the extent of the offence. The juvenile was given the right to due process and the verdict of suitable treatment was not left in the hands of any social worker or the judge of a juvenile court. Therefore, the authorities of the state were limited (Odala, 2011). The justice system can be seen from two essential perspectives: the act of protecting society against crime and the act to administer defined treatment to young offenders considering the personal circumstances of the offenders. Unlike the welfare model, the justice model is about protecting society and hence emphasizes on retribution. Therefore, in this approach, the greatest interest of the child is not the main consideration. 2.2.3 The Restorative Justice Model Currently, the emerging model of the juvenile system is the restorative model. Restorative justice has been greatly recognized in juvenile justice as an alternative approach to address the loop holes in the welfare-justice approach (Zehr, 2004). Hence, issues on the usefulness of earlier welfare-justice models have outlined the significance of restorative justice. Though this model may seem current, it is an old paradigm since the principles and ideas of restorative justice came from indigenous justice systems around the world (Sloth-Nielsen, 2016). 10 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The restorative justice model which looks at crime and conflict focuses on the damages of harm and presents a wider methodology that contests the role of punishment and treatment as the main currencies of intervention (Odala, 2011). Three main principles highlight restorative justice which is based on previous and customary understanding of wrong doing. The first principle is that, crime is a violation of people and interpersonal relations. The second principle is that, violations generate obligations. The final principle is that, there is a fundamental responsibility to amend the wrong things done (Odala, 2011). The restorative justice repairs harm by considering the needs of the offender, the victim and the community as a whole. This involves addressing the main causes of crime and providing remedy for all the actors that the crime affected. The model highlights responsibility and accountability. The model makes sure offenders recognize the harm caused and the penalty of their behaviour and accept the obligation to repair the harm caused. This model ensures participation by including all the actors the crime affected in the process of justice. The actors involved in the crime are given a stake to decide on the required justice of the case (Zehr, 2004). The Juvenile Justice Act, (JJA) 2003 of Ghana makes provision to diversionary measures such as the use of Child Panel and probation services. The JJA also makes provision for a Social Enquiry Report to be conducted before a judge gives his/her verdict. Furthermore, there are correctional facilities and juvenile homes available for juveniles convicted of crime. Basically, juveniles are not mixed up with adult offenders in the main prison. This is an evidence that the juvenile justice system in Ghana use more than one model. That is, it’s combined some aspect of the welfare model and the restorative justice model. Usually, the system is supposed to reform the convicted and at the same time detach them from the environment or society in which the crime was committed. This indicates that there is some aspect of welfare principle because criminal justice institutions like CHRAJ, DOVVSU and the police service show that the legal system is committed to the offender’s welfare (Parliament House, 2003). 11 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2.3 Effects of Institutionalization on Juvenile Reformation The aim of the juvenile correctional centres according to section 60 of the Ghana Criminal Procedure Act of 1960 is to offer a place where juveniles or young offenders who need care and protection while detained may be given work training and defined instructions and be guided by disciplinary and moral lessons that is favourable to their reformation and avoidance and suppression of crime. The Juvenile Justice Act of 2003 (ACT 653) which serves as the main authority for the functions of the Ghanaian juvenile justice system states that corrections should be suitable and directed towards the needs of the individual juvenile offenders. Therefore, the Act amended the compulsory 3 years detention of a juvenile adjudicated by the court as needing institutional care and protection derived from the Criminal Procedure Code of 1960, Act 30, section 378 to a time interval that ranges from three months to a maximum of three years depending on the age of the juvenile and the intensity of the crime. A study done by the Department of Social Welfare and UNICEF (2005) to assess the state of juvenile justice administration in Ghana (1993-2003) highlighted on the need for juveniles to be treated separately from adults and that reformation should be focused not on punishment but juvenile corrections. The study indicated that institutionalization which serves as the first step for the treatment of young offenders does not necessarily reform the offenders but rather stigmatized them. As a result, the study recommended the need for a shift from committal to programs that will significantly reform the juveniles within their community. In order to accomplish the need for a change in the process of reformation within the juvenile justice system in Ghana, Juvenile Justice Act of 2003 [ACT 653] , established a new philosophy that eliminated the compulsory three (3) years committal of a young offender to a correctional centre to a time ranging from twelve (12) weeks to eighteen (18) months depending on the age of the offender and the intensity of the crime. The significance is to de-emphasize incarceration and project treatment within the juvenile society. 12 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh In a research report to the Judicial Service of Ghana titled Access to Justice by Children, (Gagnon, 2015) indicated that it is necessary for the government to invest in non-committal treatment programmes for young offenders, particularly treatment programmes that will keep the offender from incarceration and that subjecting a young offender to a correctional centre should be the last thing to do. In their examination of juvenile corrections, Elrod and Scott Rydder (2009) suggested that residential placement is the most common type of restrictive placement available to juvenile corrections in an attempt to deal with juvenile offence. To them, residential placement does not end up in juvenile reformation because the placement limits the juvenile to community resources that is needed for the reform. Holman and Ziedenberg (2007), in a research report to Justice Policy Institute titled ‘The Impact of Incarceration Youth in Detention and other Secure Facilities’ indicated that assembling young offenders together negatively affects their behaviour and increases the chances of recidivism. Also, other researchers at the Oregon Social Learning Centre established that assembling young offenders together for treatment programme in a group setting increases their re-offending rate and result in poorer outcomes than offenders who are not subjected to group treatment. The researchers called this process ‘peers deviancy training’. According to Ashiabor (2014), the time juveniles spend in a correctional centre isn't simply time far from negative factors that may have impacted their behaviour. Also, the residential placement of juveniles may widen the gap between the juvenile and positive influences such as school and family. Youth incarceration significantly separate them from their societies to which they will return and hence create a massive obstacle in terms of reintegration into society. According to Mensah-Akorah (2005), juvenile correctional centres does little to counter the unfavourable conditions or influences of their outside lives or provide suitable experiences to youth development such as access to relationships with pro-social peers that ensure healthy 13 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh progression into adulthood. Hence, incarceration in juvenile correctional centres does little to provide motivations for normal developmental experiences and growth. 2.4 The Concept of Reintegration The concept of reintegration of offenders can be used interchangeably to mean offender re- entry. Re-entry is used to describe the transition from prison to the community in the United States of America, but resettlement is preferred in the U.K. (Moore, 2012). The concept of reintegration according to the United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime (2006) can be defined from two key viewpoints. From one viewpoint, reintegration refers to the opportunities and support given to offenders in the course of their re-entry into the community in order for them to be law abiding. It entails pre and post release interventions. From the other viewpoint, reintegration also refers to community-based sanctions which divert a person convicted from being imprisoned and it includes restorative justice and some treatment options. According to Griffiths, Dandurand, and Murdoch (2007) reintegration of offenders is a process and it starts with incarceration-based interventions and continues after the release of the offender into the society to ensure post-release adjustment. In the context of the study, reintegration is the institutional, social and community support system given to offenders in order for them to lead law-abiding life after they have been released from incarceration. It is measured by rehabilitation, reformation, and post release interventions from charity based or Faith- Based Organizations and family. Reintegration of offenders has institutional and community stages (Brooks Holliday, King, & Heilbrun, 2013). The goal of the institutional stage is to transform offenders before their gradual release and this is followed by long term support which permanently settles the offender into the society. Borzycki (2005) indicated that there are two key correctional approaches, which are the offender-oriented and the community-oriented approaches. The aim of the offender- 14 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh oriented approach is to change the attitudes of the offender which generally happens in institutional setting. However, the community-oriented approach looks at the wider social context and builds capacity for the offender through the use of the resources in the community to assist in the reintegration of the offender. The community-oriented approach can be seen from the angle of post release intervention from the family, employment opportunities and support from charity based and faith organizations within offenders’ communities to ensure control and bonding relationships. Nonetheless, it is a complex task to ensure offender reintegration and sometimes the effect of particular interventions is hard to measure. According to Travis, Solomon, and Waul (2001), positive reintegration results are attainable when the factors that predispose the criminal behaviour are addressed in an impressive manner that the social and physical needs of offenders are met both within the prison and after the release of offenders. Brooks Holliday et al. (2013) indicated that offenders’ re-entry into the community goes through three stages which are institutional, structured re-entry and community reintegration. The institutional stage looks at classification, placement, risk assessment and treatment plan. The structured re-entry starts a few months to release and immediately after the release, there is a special treatment plan and community correction. The final stage which is community reintegration involves community supervision and aftercare. This includes the provision of human services, community support, linkages and mentors to continue the period of aftercare. It is significant to know that the main criminological desires of the offenders must be addressed by institutional and community interventions that relate to accommodation, education, employment, drugs and alcohol, mental health, cognitive skills, attitudes and social networks (Harper & Chitty, 2004). The effectiveness of the programs is based on offenders’ risk assessment. Hence, an efficient approach in minimizing re-offending is the prison and community-based interventions (Antwi, 2015). 15 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2.5 Needs of Youth during Reintegration Every individual has their needs and young offenders are not exempted. The need of a young offender in a correctional institution is different from the need of a young offender who has been released and is undergoing reintegration. During reintegration, young offenders are met with a lot of challenges (Cusick, George, & Bell, 2009). Studies have indicated the need to realize the criminological needs of juveniles, that is the temptations that predisposes them to criminal behaviour such as issues on substance abuse and match them to suitable services to reduce the chance of youth re-offending once they come back to the community (Andrews, Bonta, & Law, 2010). Below are descriptions of four explicit needs that affect the re-entry of youth into the community: family engagement, mental health and substance use treatment, housing, targeted education and employment programmes. 2.5.1 Family Engagement Studies have made known the significance and key role that family and parenting play in the risk of delinquent and antisocial behaviour in youths (Hoeve et al., 2012; Lösel & Farrington, 2012). Placement of youths outside their home can be particularly hard, since they are isolated from their guardians or parents who can give direction, security and supervision amid a period when the adolescent begins to develop essential attitudes, beliefs and life skills (Shanahan & DiZerega, 2016) Reconnecting of the delinquent person with family during re-entry is an essential step to effective reintegration and it can begin even before the delinquent is discharged from confinement. Visitations by family for a confined youth who committed grave crimes brought about a decline in depressive symptoms over time when compared with youth who had no 16 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh family visitations (Monahan, Goldweber, & Cauffman, 2011). As such, the more the family visitations, the bigger the decline in symptoms. It is essential to engage family members in re-entry programme once youth are discharged back into the community. Some re-entry programmes have been designed to centre on the promotion of family reintegration and this is because of the key role that family can play in the process (Darnell & Schuler, 2015; Early, Chapman, & Hand, 2013). Parents and family can help to ensure a positive behavioural change in youth even when they are incarcerated. Also, they can attach youths to the desired services and treatment in the community, and make sure that youths meet any requirement ordered by the court, such as attending meetings with a probation officer or paying a fine. 2.5.2 Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment Research on the incidence of mental health and disorder of substance abuse among delinquents in incarceration suggest such problems are prevalent. A study by Wasserman, McReynolds, Schwalbe, Keating, and Jones (2010), across three settings of justice (system intake, detention and secure post-adjudication) revealed that just over half of all youths (51%) met the requirement for one or more psychiatric disorders. 34% of youths specifically met the requirement for substance use disorder, 30% met the requirement for disruptive behaviour disorders, 20% met the requirement for anxiety disorders and 18% met the requirement for affective disorder. According to Wolff, Baglivio, and Piquero (2017), experience of childhood trauma increases the risk of re-arrest for justice-involved youth. Childhood neglect, abuse and trauma are more specifically related with increased risk of committing violent, serious and repeated crimes in adolescence or during the youthful stage (Fox, Perez, Cass, Baglivio, & Epps, 2015). Interventions on re-entry should therefore consider the distinctive life experiences of juveniles 17 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh and address the consequence of fear of stigma, past trauma and need for trusting relationships with adults. Samuel (2015) has identified the fear of stigma as an essential obstacle to accessing mental health services by juvenile returnees. Based on previous experience of trauma and fear of stigma, it is specifically essential for delinquents to establish trusting relations with adult service providers in order to accomplish the needed treatment. The trust can be built by allowing the services providers and the delinquents to create a relationship before they are released from incarceration and ensuring the growth of the bond after they have returned to the community (Samuel, 2015). Furthermore, disorders associated with substance use can augment both the possibility and speed of re-offending among the youth (Aalsma et al., 2015; Schubert, Mulvey, & Glasheen, 2011). Providing individualized substance use treatment for the youth is an essential component for effective re-entry. According to (Calleja, Dadah, Fisher, & Fernandez, 2016), targeted re- entry services that involve a comprehensive assessment of mental health treatment needs and juveniles’ substance use can minimize re-offending. 2.5.3 Housing Tam, Freisthler, Curry, and Abrams (2016) indicated that as many as one of every four youth with record of juvenile justice system involvement experience homelessness. It is therefore important to ensure that youth have suitable accommodation and housing once they are released since it may minimize the likelihood of re-offending and what’s more guarantees effective re- entry into the community (Stansfield, 2016). But looking for a safe and stable place to lodge after release can be difficult because of the residual effects of family separation during the incarceration and also as a result of the stigma attached to having a criminal record (Stepteau- Watson, Watson, & Lawrence, 2014). 18 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Furthermore, available accommodation for the youth re-entering the community is situated unduly in areas which may not have educational and employment opportunities to the youth posing re-entry problems (Tam et al., 2016). It is vital to consider the location of housing for juveniles because juveniles who return to areas which are disadvantaged face great likelihood of re-offending and may therefore need extra defined services to conquer the obstacle of effective re-entry (Baglivio, Wolff, Jackowski, & Greenwald, 2017). 2.5.4 Targeted Educational and Employment Programmes Education and employment are two powerful indicators of involvement in delinquent and criminal behaviour. Youth re-entering the community experience many problems when returning to previous school environments, leaving them with no choice than to drop out of school (Wallace, 2012). In their study, (Bullis, Yovanoff, Mueller, & Havel, 2002) found that less than half of returning youth were registered in school or employed 6 months after re-entering the community. In other studies, Mathur and Clark (2014) found out that the barrier that youth face when re-entering their community was a failure to stay enrolled or attend school. A study done by Cruise, Evans, and Pickens (2011) revealed that 33% of the juveniles in long term secure residential facilities learning disability, compared with 8% in the normal population. Absence of education related services in incarceration add to the stigma and barriers that juveniles with learning disabilities must solve if they decide to attend or stay enrolled in school after their release (Sedlak & McPherson, 2010). It therefore important to make sure juveniles have suitable support as they progress back into public education, and that school system and re-entry related agencies work together to ensure that the support becomes a reality (Gary, 2013). With the team work, an arrangement can be made while the juvenile is in incarceration, 19 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh to ensure a smooth and direct progression into an educational setting once the juvenile returns to the community (Hirschfield, 2014). According to (Platt, Bohac, & Wade, 2015), educational systems that are based on defined skill development for career preparation can be exceptionally supportive for juveniles undergoing re-entry. Because juveniles who have spent time in incarceration don’t have opportunities as their peers to find work experience, defined programs can develop the desired job skills (Zajac, Sheidow, & Davis, 2015). 2.6 Types of Reintegration Programmes or Approaches 2.6.1 Mentoring According to Tolan et al. (2013), mentoring minimizes delinquency and aggression among juveniles who are likely to be at risk or juveniles with delinquent behaviour record. Mentoring reveals the significance of creating trusted relationships with one or more adult in the juvenile justice system (Todis, Bullis, D'Ambrosio, Schultz, & Waintrup, 2001). Studies have indicated that such relationships push the juveniles to express their feelings and seek guidance. However, the studies stated that juveniles had never had a trusted relationship with adult before. Chan and Henry (2013) in a narrative review of mentoring programmes for juveniles re- entering the community concluded that mentoring increases engagement with school and community and allows juveniles to successfully access desired employment opportunities and other services. Nevertheless, a logical review of the utility of mentoring programmes to assist juvenile re-entry showed mixed results. Two studies revealed some re-offending reductions as a result of mentoring programmes, while one study found no significant effect on re-offending (Abrams, Mizel, Nguyen, & Shlonsky, 2014). The authors indicated that lack of studies featuring rigorous 20 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh methods and lack of detailed information about the content of mentoring interventions affected conclusions that were to be drawn (Abrams et al., 2014). 2.6.2 Case Management In the justice system, case management of juveniles includes the discovering of a juvenile’s re- offending risk, as well as the particular needs that must be met to minimize the risk and individual factors, such as learning style and cognitive ability which may hinder the success of interventions (Peterson-Badali, Skilling, & Haqanee, 2015). The idea of the authors follows the laid principles of Risk-Needs-Responsivity framework. According to Peterson-Badali et al. (2015), the framework highlights a logical, evidence-based method for examining the risk of an individual for future offending and discovering the particular needs that must be met to minimize risk, while focusing on treatment modality (general responsivity) as well as individual factors such as learning style, motivation and cognitive ability that can influence the success of the intervention. Therefore, for young offenders returning to the community, it is not only significant to discover their needs, but also ensure that services are matched appropriately and that services are linked to the cognitive abilities and learning styles, to ensure successful responsiveness to services. Thus, case management should include the assessment of risk-needs instruments to discover an informed plan for treating juveniles. The plan can be adjusted over time as the needs and risks of juveniles’ change (Schlager & Pacheco, 2011). Because it is difficult to access multiple systems by youth re-entering the community, case management enables us to coordinate such systems (Zajac et al., 2015). Therefore, while it is essential to identify the risk and needs of the youth in a case management process, it is equally essential for the youth to obtain services and treatment to meet their desired needs. 21 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh In their study, Peterson-Badali et al. (2015) realized that while desired needs of youth were discovered by probation officers responsible for youth case management, those needs were not usually linked with the suitable services. The results showed that 42% of youths that had discovered employment/educational needs were linked with services, 21% of youths with discovered substance use needs were linked with services, while 32.8% of youth with discovered family needs were linked with services. The study highlights the disconnection between discovering the needs of youth and linking services to meet those needs that can affect the success of case management. 2.6.3 Cognitive Behavioural Approach (CBA) Cognitive Behavioural Approach is an incarceration-based intervention established to change the criminological attitudes of delinquents. It is a treatment that allows delinquents to have self- control and be responsible to other individuals. Cognitive Behavioural approach according to Antwi (2015) is an approach to treating delinquents with the aim of changing the imprecise thinking patterns and process sometimes called ‘criminal thinking’ which encourages delinquent behaviour. It involves prevention of substance abuse, anger management, mental health care, living skills, guidance and counselling problem solving approach, behavioural change program, violence program and other initiatives that prevent crime. These programs allow criminal desistence and cognitive transformation (Koehler, Loser, & Humphreys, 2012). 2.6.4 Faith-Based Approach (FBA) Faith-based treatment is an approach that reforms or renews the minds of delinquents to lead law abiding lives after release. According to Antwi (2015), religion rather than laws direct individual’s behaviour and serves as a way of social control. B. R. Johnson and Larson (2003) embarked on a program between participants of Inner-Change Freedom Initiative (ICFI) and 22 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The objective of the programme was to provide participants with education, work, one-on-one monitoring, life skills and value reconstruction through bible teachings. It was 16 to 24 months pre-release bible programme and 6 to 12 months aftercare programme. Some of the themes for the programme were: I am not who I used to be, God versus the prison code, positive outlook on life, the need to give back to society and spiritual growth. Spiritual rehabilitation is a developmental process that is aimed at turning the lives of delinquents around. The results of the programme revealed that complete participation in ICFI programmes (pre and post release programmes) resulted in minimal re-arrest and re- offending rates than delinquents in legal control group. On the contrary, individuals who quit the programme voluntarily or were removed for disciplinary behaviours were matched with high recidivism rates. The repercussion of the results indicates that correctional facilities without pre and post release religious instructions may end up in high recidivism rates by offenders. 2.7 Historical Background to Juvenile Justice in Ghana Juvenile justice in Ghana will better be appreciated within the context of judicial and historical developments. The Juvenile Justice System of Ghana forms a vital piece of the entire judicial structure of Ghana (Osafo Sampong, n.d, p. 1). Before British colonial administration, the traditional system of justice existed. In this system, chiefs and selected elders of supposedly high moral character and integrity were selected to deal with children and adult who come into conflict with the laws of the land. They meted out sanctions, rehabilitated and re-socialized the young offender before they are discharged back into the society (Arthur, 1997). The traditional justice was characterized by restorative justice principles (Osafo Sampong, n.d, p. 1) and the Justice model. Restorative justice focuses on repairing harm done to victims through reconciliation between victims, offenders, and the communities and reduce future harm by crime prevention. Also, the Restorative justice model views delinquency/crime as a violation 23 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh of the victims and relationships, so they seek redress for victims, recompense for offenders and also community reintegration of victims and offenders (Bell, 2015, p. 38; Corrado, 1992, p. 4). An example is when an offender or their family is asked to provide direct restitution to the victim in cases where the violation involves a property offense such as theft. The Justice model, on the other hand, views crime as an individual responsibility and the purpose of intervention is to give appropriate sanctions. This ensures that justice is done, and individual rights are maintained and respected (Bell, 2015, p. 38; Corrado, 1992, p. 4). An example is banishing people from the homelands and sentencing people to death when they commit some criminal and abominable offences against the land. The juvenile justice system of Ghana was impacted profoundly by the British colonial rule. The British colonial era brought about the inception of the formal justice system. Before the main legislation on juvenile justice, the main provision for juveniles was the 1936 ordinance which mandated judges and magistrates to commit children under16 years of age to a training school if they were found liable to crimes which were punishable by imprisonment if committed by adults (Osafo Sampong, n.d, p. 1) The first formal juvenile justice system in Ghana was introduced by the British colonial administration in a series of legislation passed between 1928 and 1946 (Abotchie, 1991; Riby- Williams, 1954). The new Juvenile Justice System created a separate juvenile court which dealt with persons under the age of 17, who come into conflict with the law except when the juvenile was charged jointly with an adult (Kurian, 1992, p. 685). This saw the establishment of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in 1944-1945 which began to work in 1946 after local officers had been recruited and trained by the British government. They were given the mandate of rehabilitating juveniles. Laws that guided the juvenile justice at that time were the Probation of Offenders Ordinance of 1944, the Industrial Schools and Institutions Ordinance of 1945, the Court (Amendment) Ordinance of 1944 (Osafo Sampong, n.d, p. 2). 24 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The Juvenile Justice System was built up on the principles of the welfare model (Mensah- Bonsu, 1995). That is, Juveniles were not treated as criminals; the emphasis was on the offender and not the offense; the best interest of the child was their priority and not the protection of society; Key personnel were child care experts and social workers; Delinquency was determined by social, psychological and environmental factors; the purpose of intervention was to provide treatment; the objective was to rehabilitate (Bell, 2015, p. 38; Corrado, 1992, p. 4). The objective was to treat, rehabilitate and equip the juvenile offender with vocational skills that will help in their smooth transition into the community. However, this objective was not achieved making it difficult to rehabilitate and reintegrate juveniles into society. Thus, there were no experts (psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellors) and their focus was on vocational training than on treatment to rehabilitate. Meanwhile, the vocational training is not always appropriate to help the juvenile earn a stable livelihood after release since most of these juveniles don’t have capital to start up a trade with the skill they learnt at the correctional centre. After independence, the country reviewed every single legislation, including all laws identified with Juvenile Justice, with the aim of aligning them with its new status. These developments led to the adoption of the Criminal Procedure Code (1960). The Criminal Procedure Code (Act 30) (1960) was the central legislation that directed how juveniles in conflict with the law were dealt with in the country (R. Ame, 2017). The criminal procedure code wasn’t different from what existed in the colonial era. Literally, they were using the similar laws and standards (welfare model). It also used vocational training to rehabilitate juveniles and it also didn’t have the child expert to treat the juveniles. A new Juvenile Justice Act (JJA) was adopted in 2003. This JJA made the first significant changes in Juvenile Justice Law. One key innovation is the formalization of restorative justice in the Act. The JJA through its restorative justice model introduced the child panel which serve as an alternative measure to divert juveniles from court, to prevent stigmatization and help in 25 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh the reintegration of these juveniles into society (R. Ame, 2017; R. Ame, Ayete-Nyampong, & Gakpleazi, 2014a; Mensah-Bonsu, 2017) . The aim of diversion has not been achieved leading to the juvenile court using more of custody than of diversion and this also contradicts the United Nation Convention on the Right of a Child Article 37 (b) which talks about custody as a last resort. Also, the purpose of reintegration through the child panel has not been achieved. The JJA also talks about Parole, as a pre-release program which also aims at reintegrating juveniles into the society. However, this goal has not been achieved primarily due to lack of resources and shortage of licensed (probation officers). This shortage has led to most of the probation officers concentrating on the social enquiry report that help judges to pass sentence on the juvenile than on parole that help in juvenile reintegration. This shows a contradiction between the law and what is being practiced and making it difficult for juveniles to be reintegrated. 2.8 CRRECENT and Young Offender Reintegration Young offenders who come into conflict with the law and are stationed in remand homes and correctional facilities have been found to be victims of poor parental care and from both urban and rural communities. In 2011, CRRECENT (Child, Research and Resources Centre) a non- governmental organization conducted a sponsored research on Juvenile Justice System in Ghana which highlighted many gaps in the justice delivery for juveniles particularly at the reintegration and aftercare phase. With assistance from REACH FOR CHANGE, the centre started a structured reintegration and aftercare programme for discharged juveniles. The centre enrolled 250 released boys and their families in the reintegration programme at the start of the project in 2011. The ages of the young offenders in the program were between the age interval 16 and 24 years. Various forms of assistance and services were delivered to beneficiaries who were at various levels of progress and stability. 26 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Over the period, the centre has built the capacity of Ghana Prison Service Officers in charge of Correctional Centres in Child-Centric Approach to the management of young offenders, entrepreneurial skills and role model interactions with young offenders. The centre advocates on behalf of young offenders quietly at top level of the Ghana Prison Service and has also undertaken to address system change initiative with the leadership of Ghana Prisons. The reintegration programme has affected the attitudes of the released offenders and their families in diverse ways. About 55% of the young offenders were stable, while the others were at different levels of stability. One person from the first batch of juveniles entered the university in the 2013/2014 academic year. Currently, CRRECENT is constructing a Juvenile Justice Centre at Dodowa in the Greater Accra region to ensure an effective, efficient, evidence-based, best international practice standards and credible juvenile justice delivery system in the country (www.crrecent.org). Figure 1: CRRECENT Reintegration Senior Correctional Centre CRRECENT RELIGIOUS COUNSELLING FOR ACIVITIES PARENT AND YOU NG OFFENDERS MENTORING EDUCATION APPRENTICESHIP HOME COMING MONITORING/FOLLOW UP Source: Author’s construct. 27 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CRRECENT reintegration programme starts from the Senior Correctional Centre and continues when the young offender is released. After a young offender is released from the Senior Correctional Centre, he can either choose to join CRRECENT “after care” or reintegration programme. CRRECENT doesn’t have any special reintegration package. Reintegration is done on case by case basis. Before the start of the post-release reintegration, the juveniles are interviewed by a CRRECENT staff. After the interview, they are then assigned to a particular reintegration programme. Some young offenders get someone from the community or the family to support and supervise them. They are also taken them through psycho-social counselling to let them know that all is not lost. CRRECENT call to check up on the juveniles and also encourage them. Some parents get affected when they are children are in the arrested and detained. One thing CRRECENT does as part of helping the juveniles to reintegrate is to counsel the parents of the juveniles. They sponsor some juveniles through education and others through apprenticeship. They do monitor and follow up. They pay personal visit to the juveniles at the various homes. They bring role models to mentor the juveniles and they sometimes organise home coming for them. 2.9 Review of related studies on the Justice system of Ghana In Antwi’s study on social reintegration of offenders and recidivism in Ghana (2015), he examined the nature of the transition of offenders in Ghana. The results indicated that majority of delinquents re-offend because of family relationships, individual characteristics, community factors and strict policies which have been classified into institutional push and pull factors, and social and community push factors. According to the author, the institutional push factors focus on custody, deterrence and justice other than correction. Also, the incarceration-based interventions are inefficient in moulding the offenders to lead law-abiding lives since 28 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh governments are not motivated to finance correctional programmes. The social and community push factors lead to social rejection. The study revealed that the social system outside the prison is non-supportive and very coercive. Though many ex-offenders return to their families, they face coercive interpersonal relationships and also, they do not get support from the larger community due to the stigma of prison history. The study recommended a shift of focus from punishment to correctional measures and also ex-offenders should be re-engaged in civic activities to enhance their re-entry into their communities. Also, Ashiabor (2014) investigated the extent to which the Swedru Junior Boys Correctional Centre assisted the rehabilitation of juveniles who have passed through its walls. The findings of the study revealed that treatment programmes (moral training, education, literacy programme, vocational skills training and counselling) were not effective and thus did not have any positive effect on rehabilitation of young offenders. The findings showed no significant relationship between the level of rehabilitation of young offenders and the level of professionalism of officers involved in the treatment of young offenders. The study recommended that appropriate stakeholders should introduce a detailed and individual scientific treatment for offenders and also treatment programmes that are compatible with culture and environment be introduced into the Juvenile Justice Administration. Similarly, Osei (2013) examined the Juvenile Justice System in Ghana with particular reference to its effectiveness in reforming the juvenile offender. The study highlighted a major disconnection between legal provisions for the rehabilitation of young offenders and the actual practice. To some extent, it was revealed that practices in the correctional facilities do not match the provisions in the Juvenile Justice Act and this was due to the lack of resources to execute the laid down practices effectively. According to the study, the conditions and restriction that come with incarceration have the ability to prevent the juvenile from repeating a crime in order to avoid such unbearable situation. The study recommended that stakeholders in the juvenile 29 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh justice system should be closely monitored and supervised to enhance conformity with the law governing the system to ensure that human resources of offenders are well nurtured and harnessed for national development. Also, Boakye (2012) did a study on the perceived circumstances which lead to adolescent involvement in juvenile delinquency and the meanings they make out of their delinquent behaviours. The findings of the study indicate that, juvenile delinquency in Ghana cannot be narrowed down to just a single causal factor. Several incidents come to play before teenagers get to put up a delinquent act and some of these circumstances included the functioning of the nuclear family, inadequate extended family support, schooling apathy, deviant peer influence and substance use. The researcher used theories such as social bond theory, the general theory of crime, the labeling theory, the differential association theory, the differential oppression theory, situated learning theory and literature in the area of juvenile crimes to explain the circumstances. The study showed that delinquency was the only option for young offenders generally to meet their ends given the circumstance they found themselves at that moment. The study recommended that the community and psychologists should come on board to help curb juvenile delinquency. A study by United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime (2006) indicated that having a strong family support is one of the most important factors contributing to successful rehabilitation and reintegration. This means that, in developing countries where families are held in high esteem or respected due to the role, they play in supporting its members, supporting an offender who is a member of the family to reintegrate shouldn’t be a problem. However, existing literature has shown that, some parents/ guardians do not even show up when their children are arrested and taken through the judicial process (R. K. Ame, 2011; Hoffmann & Baerg, 2011; Mensah- Bonsu, 1990-1992). This means that, there is a high possibility of these parents/ guardians not supporting these juveniles during the reintegration period. In terms of rehabilitation and re- 30 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh entry practices, the families of these offenders are mostly informed rather than being involved (Townsend & Smith, 2010). Hence, this study seeks to explore how juvenile offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society after release from the correctional centre. Another study by Abrah (2014) addresses the question of how juvenile experiences at the Senior Correctional Centre (SCC) in Accra, Ghana redirected their paths to conformity. Using a qualitative research design, the researcher explored the lived experiences of ten young offenders in their young adulthood. Contrary to the expectation of Edwin Sutherland (1947), the findings revealed that in intimate groups individuals learn the values, attitudes, motivations as well as the rationalizations and techniques for desisting from crime. The findings further suggest that correctional experience should not always be viewed as a detrimental factor reinforcing crime, but rather be seen as an opportunity which may trigger tuning points. Also, in another study by Abrah, he investigated the transitions embedded in the offending trajectories of Ghanaian juvenile delinquents who were in their adulthood. Using a qualitative research design, he explored the life history 23 juvenile delinquents who have persisted and desisted from crime through adulthood and four stake holders. His findings suggested that the interplay of structural background factors and informal social control mechanisms may not necessarily predict the early onset of crime and delinquency in the Ghanaian social context due to socio-cultural and economic reasons. Also, the criminal justice had a differential impact on the juvenile delinquents; While for some it helped change their criminal careers, for others, it failed to help them desist. In adulthood, the finding suggests that friendship, quality employment, residential change, labelling and social support are critical elements which explain persistence or desistance from crime confirming the observations made by Sampson & Laub (1993) in relation to stable marriage and employment. The study further contradicts the orthodoxy of the perspective that suggests that deviant values are learnt in intimate groups Sutherland 1947) and also the traditional labelling theories, Becker (1963), Lemert (1951) and 31 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Tannenbaum (1938) that labeling per se does not explain persistence of crime as some of participants maneuverer their delinquent status and desisted from crime. 2.10 Conceptual Framework The Ghanaian Juvenile Justice system is made up of different institutions and each institution plays a peculiar role in helping in the transformation and reintegration of a juvenile offender in the country. Ideally, “a juvenile’s first formal contact with the Juvenile Justice System is when he or she is arrested” (R. Ame, 2017, p. 13). An Arrest of a juvenile can be done by the police and also by a private person when the juvenile commits the crime in-front of that person (Section,5 and 6 of JJA 2003). After the arrest, the juvenile is sent to the juvenile court and he/she is either granted bail, remanded or diverted to the child panel depending on the case. When a juvenile goes to trial and he/she is found guilty, he/she pays a fine, is released on probation for a specific time period, or sentenced to the junior and senior correctional centres depending on the age of the juvenile (Ame, 2017). At the correctional centres, the Prison officers and social welfare workers in charge of the Senior and Junior Correctional Centre, respectively, take-over and start rehabilitation. When the juvenile is about to be discharged from the centre, according to Juvenile Justice Acts, (2003), the juvenile offender can be released from the correctional centre to serve part of his sentence in the community but under the supervision of a probation officer in the district where the juvenile is likely to reside after release (Ame, 2017). Parole serves as one of the process of reintegration i.e. pre-release reintegration. This process helps the juvenile to gradually fit into society before they are finally released. After release, social welfare continues with post-release reintegration by doing follow ups to make sure that the juvenile finally fits into the society. Currently in Ghana, parole which is a pre-release reintegration and post reintegration is not 32 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh done, this means that the juvenile justice cycle ends with rehabilitation and not with reintegration. Currently, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organizations such as the Child Research and Resource Centre (CRRECENT) are involved in aftercare and reintegration of Juveniles from the senior correctional Centre. This study explores how these juveniles are reintegrated using CRRECENT reintegration programme as a benchmark. Figure 2: The juvenile justice process. CITIZEN POLICE FBOs and NGOs BAIL JUVENILE REMAND JUVENILE COURT CORRECTIONAL HOME COURT INSTITUTION Source: Modelled from Ame (2017) 2.11 Chapter Summary In summary, the literature review started with the models of juvenile justice, the effect of correctional facilities on juvenile reformation, the concept on reintegration, the needs of the youth during reintegration, some reintegration programmes, the role of CRRECENT in reintegration, historical background of the of Juvenile Justice System of Ghana, empirical evidence and concluded with the conceptual framework. For this study, reviews were done both on theoretical and empirical literature. 33 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 Introduction This chapter presents the research approach, methods and procedures adopted to address the research objectives. It discusses the population, sample and sampling techniques, research instruments, description of data collection procedures and data analysis, and ethical considerations. The chapter also presents the philosophical tradition and position of the research. 3.2 Research Approach A qualitative approach was employed in this study. It relied on the use of in-depth interviews to arrive at its findings. The philosophy underlying this approach is interpretivism. An interpretive researcher accepts as true that reality is not something ‘out there,’ which a researcher can clearly explain, describe, or translate into a research report. Reality and knowledge are created and replicated through communication, interaction, and practice (Creswell & Poth, 2018). S. Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault (2015), intimated that the rationale for implementing a qualitative research is not about counting people’s views or sentiments, but somewhat discovering a series of views expressed and how it differently characterizes an issue. The researcher wanted an appreciation of the types of offences mostly committed by young offenders; how young offenders acquire skills during their stay in the correctional institution and whether the skills they acquire contribute to a successful reintegration; how families (guardian) relate to their incarcerated and released offender and how this relation influence their reintegration in society. The researcher recognizes that this approach will reveal the experiences of young offenders and stakeholders in the reintegration of these young offenders into the society. Creswell and Poth (2018), maintains that the qualitative approach has richness 34 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh of data and proving power in conceptualization as strong point. The qualitative approach also stirs discussions and develops a research idea. Qualitative methods are used more often within the interpretivism paradigm as they are presumed to be better suited to investigate the truth about a phenomenon. In short, this study adopted an Interpretive research paradigm where knowledge about reality is always facilitated through the researcher. Unquestionably, the interpretive paradigm suggests that it is necessary to examine social action from the standpoint of the actors. 3.3 Research Design The research design details the strategy used in completing the study. It considers the methods of data collection and analyses (Hancock & Algozzine, 2016). A qualitative researcher generally makes some considerations to successfully put in practice the strategy in a research design. Yin (2013) considers the degree of control the researcher has over the actual behavioural event, the type of research questions specified for the study, and whether emphasis should be placed on behavioural events compared with contemporary events. This study employs an exploratory research design and this is because the research is fairly new within the Ghanaian context. The researcher thus opted to use an explorative design to explore this new area of interest. It does not require control over behavioural events by the researcher but focuses on contemporary events around young offenders. 3.4 Study Sites and Study Participants The study sites are important in most qualitative studies. Yin (2013) suggested that understanding the characteristics of the places in which the phenomenon of interest may be found and explored is necessary to make valid inferences. The specific geographical areas that was chosen for the study is Accra, the capital of Ghana. This area is where the NGO, Child, Research and Resource Centre (CRRECENT) and the Senior Correctional Centre in Ghana that 35 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh form part of the study are located. The Senior Correctional Centre formally known as Borstal institute was established in 1947 during the colonial rule by the British. The Department of Social Welfare managed the centre up until 1958 when the Ghana Prisons Service took over its administration. The Senior Correctional Centre was selected because it is the only Senior Correctional Centre in the country and it also works in the area of rehabilitation. CRRECENT was selected because it is one of the recognised local NGOs which are involved with after care and reintegration of young offenders in Ghana. They have been doing reintegration and aftercare since 2011. CRRECENT was also part of the Juvenile Justice Act formulation in 2003. 3.5 The Sampling Technique and Rationale The study sought to choose specific institutions and people for data collection. The sampling plan covered the selection of study participants for interviewing. Purposive sampling, a non- probability sampling technique was used to select the participants. This technique was used to choose the participants from CRRECENT and the Ghana Prison service. The researcher employed a snowballing sampling approach to select young offenders and their family members. This helped to carefully choose data that fit the limits of the research questions, goals, and purposes of the study. In response to the research questions, the investigator determined the people who can most appropriately provide data on the researcher’s specific interest in exploring how young offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society after release from correctional centres. Consequently, persons from the following designated roles/institutions were selected as participants for the study. Prison officers from the Senior Correctional Centre, CRRECENT staffs, Young offenders within the CRRECENT reintegration programme, Young offenders who were not in the CRRECENT reintegration programme, and Family/Guardians of young offenders. 36 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Table 1: Respondent List for the study Respondent Type Number of Respondents Interviewed Young Offenders reintegrating through the 6 CRRECENT programme Young offenders outside the CRRECENT programme 4 Family members of young offenders from the 6 CRRECENT programme Staff of CRRECENT 2 Prison officers 5 Source: Fieldwork, 2018 The target population for the study were young offenders who have been discharged from the Senior Correctional Centre, (i.e. young offenders in the CRRECENT reintegration programme and young offenders who are not in the CRRECENT reintegration programme) their family members, prison officers providing rehabilitation and treatment services at the Senior Correctional centre and staff of Child Resource and Research Centre. This targeted groups were chosen because they have the characteristics, knowledge and experiences about rehabilitation and reintegration of young offenders in Ghana. For qualitative research, it is not easy to predict sample size from the start, it is, however, advisable to sample until theoretical saturation. In all, the researcher interviewed 23 respondents. 10 young offenders, 5 Prison officers, 2 CRRECENT staff, and 6 family members of young offenders. The research got access to the young offenders through CRRECENT. Getting access to the young offenders in Accra was a bit difficult. This was because some them were working and couldn’t make time for an 37 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh interview with the researcher and others phone numbers were either wrong number or switched off and this serves as a limitation for the study. The researcher made use of the young offenders who were available. The researcher couldn’t get access to some family members, specifically family members of young offenders who were not in the CRRECENT reintegration programme. This was because most of these young offenders had left home or has loss both parent and was not having the contact of the any family member. The researcher got access to 2 permanent staffs of CRRECENT who are charge of the juvenile justice program within the NGO. Also, the research interviewed 5 prison officers this because saturation was reached. 3.6 Instrument The researcher designed an interview guide for the study. The researcher was interested in providing study participants (Prison officers and the Executive Directors of CRRECENT) with a list of themes to explore during the interviews. After some careful deliberation and reading of the academic literature the researcher came up with interview themes such as life experiences of young offenders; skills and training programs in correctional centre; mechanisms put in place in the correctional centre to aid reintegration; role of the family and CRRECENT in reintegration. Most importantly, the researcher revisited the research questions, and this guided the themes of interest to explore in the interviews. The interviews were designed to explore personal experiences and to gather factual data on re-integrating young offenders. 3.7 Data collection Procedure The study collected data from primary and secondary sources. Primary data collection was mainly undertaken among the categories of participants described in the study participants section. Some of these respondents were particularly concerned with reintegration of young offenders within the Ghanaian juvenile justice system. A semi-structured interview guide (See Appendix 1 for details) was developed for in-depth interview sessions with all study 38 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh participants. Semi-structured interviews allow respondents the freedom to express their views in their own terms, and because its open-ended, it allows the researcher to probe or follow issues that diverge from the guide to help gain more understanding. For both the young offender and their family members, face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews were used to collect the data. The interviews were conducted in English and local languages such as Akan and Ga, and the data was transcribed verbatim by the researcher. The local languages were used because not all young offenders and their family members spoke and understood English. Access to young offenders was challenging. However, through the support and assistance from CRRECENT, the researcher was able to get in touch with a few of them. Through the young offender, the researcher was able to get in touch with their parents or guardian for interviews. To get access to the young offender, an introductory letter from my department, informed consent form, sample of interview guide for young offender and their guardian were sent to CRRECENT. This is because the juveniles who have gone through CRRECENT and their families are somehow connected to CRRECENT. With young offenders who have not gone through the CRRECENT programme, the researcher got in touch with them through the young offenders in the CRRECENT programme. This was done by taken their telephone numbers from the offenders in the CRRECENT programme. After the researcher interviewed a young offender, the researcher took their telephone numbers and through that the researcher was able to book an appointment with their parent/guardian. Most of the appointments for the interview were made through telephone calls. Some participants were busy and couldn’t meet the researcher in person, others were out of town, so the researcher interviewed them on the telephone. At the beginning of the interview, respondents were asked if the interview could be recorded and this was done for each interview. The duration for the interviews were between 25 minutes to 45minutes. The young offenders were open and were not withholding information from the researcher. They easily disclosed 39 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh their personal experiences. All the interviews sessions with the young offenders and their family were recorded and later transcribed. Offenders who participated in the study were above 18years so apart from seeking permission from CRRECENT, the researcher sought the personal consent from the participants. Most of the young offenders were interviewed at CRRECENT and the rest were interviewed on phone and at their work place. The researcher went to Abokobi, Aboba, Maamobi and Haatso to interview the parents/ guardians and the others were interviewed on phone. This was done to ensure that participants activities were not disrupted, and also respondent confidentiality was ensured. The next stage involve interview with staff of CRRECENT and the prison officers. These groups of respondents also gave in-depth information about their experiences with the juvenile justice system of Ghana. An introductory letter from the Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, informed consent form, sample of interview guide for prison officer and CRRECENT staff were sent to the Director of Prisons at the Prisons Headquarters in Cantonment, Accra and to the Executive Director of CRRECENT in Haatso, respectively. Most of the interviews were conducted in English and transcribed verbatim. I was able to record some interviews and had to write others down because I was not allowed to take a mobile phone into the Senior Correctional Centre. 3.8 Data Analysis procedure A problem-based approach for qualitative data analyses was used in the present study. By this, the analyses predominantly followed a deductive approach and was etic in nature. The etic method to reasoning used in this study explains that to generate knowledge and understanding, a researcher must describe the experiences of all stakeholders in terms of external criteria that are already derived. By this, the external theory becomes the criteria to determine the frame of meaning (S. Taylor et al., 2015). To most qualitative researchers, rather than grounding the 40 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh meaning of the study solely in the data collected, an etic approach encourages reflection upon the current literature and the number of theories the researcher brings to the data. Flick (2014) suggests that the interview transcripts and reading of field reports are the first steps in qualitative data analysis. Analysis of the primary data i.e. data from the interviews for the study was done through the following steps. The interviews were transcribed verbatim by the researcher. After transcription of all interviews, the researcher read over the interview transcripts and where necessary, the audio recordings of the transcripts were played to rectify errors in the transcripts. The ideas for coding were written down through this process. Each data item was given equal consideration, and as many codes as possible were created. The various codes were placed under manageable themes. This process was manually done many times, noting down the key points and identifying the themes from the participants’ response on the issues of the reintegration young offenders in Ghana. The themes were then grouped into more manageable groups of sub-themes. The researcher read through the excerpts under each code to ensure that they fit into where they have been placed. The themes where altered to reflect the codes they contain where necessary. This was done to avoid overlapping between themes. Codes which were found not to fall under any of the themes of interest were put aside. The themes that remained are those that tell a story about the data in relation to the research question. The analyses generally involved searching through the entire data set to identify repeated patterns of meaning. 3.9 Ethical Considerations Ethical clearance for the current study was given by the Ethics Committee of the College of Humanities, University of Ghana. The researcher in accordance with the directives of the Ethics Committee at the University of Ghana, took steps to make sure that no respondent or any participant in this research was offended in any way. The researcher made sure that permission 41 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh was sought with introductory letters and consent form. The researcher clearly explained to participants, especially young offenders before they signed the consent form. The respondents were also assured of the fact that the study is only for academic purposes and not for any other purpose that will undermine their interest. Information was reported in a way that did not disclose their identity thus, confidentiality was ensured. 42 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER FOUR AFTER SERVING TIME IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, WHAT NEXT? 4.1 Introduction This chapter presents the findings of the current study. The findings are organised along the main objectives of the study. To provide a holistic understanding of the life experiences of young offenders after serving time in correctional centre, their experiences prior to and during their detention are also presented in the current chapter. Afterwards, a discussion of the findings is presented. This discussion will synthesise all data from field notes, interviews and secondary sources. The presentation and discussion of findings was based on matrix tables developed by the researcher based on the themes along the main study objectives. Also, for the purpose of easy identification and confidentiality, respondents for the study are broadly divided in three main groupings, i.e. institutional respondents (Prison officers and NGO staff), Young offenders (those in CRRECENT reintegration programme and those who are not in the CRRECENT reintegration programme) and family or other relations. 4.2 Demographic characteristics of young offenders. The researcher interviewed 10 young offenders. Per gender composition, all 10 young offenders were male. In terms of educational level, 5 have completed SHS, 3 have dropped-out of school and 2 are currently in SHS 3. They were within the ages of 20-32 years. In terms of their ethnic background, 7 Akan, 1 Ga, and 2 Ewe. The socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents in the qualitative component of this study are displayed in Table 2. 43 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Table 2: Socio-demographic characteristics of young offender respondents (N = 10) Items description N GENDER Male 10 Female 0 AGE 20-26 8 27-32 2 EDUCATIONAL LEVEL Completed SHS 5 Still in School 2 School drop-out 3 RELIGION Christianity 7 Islam 3 Traditional 0 ETHNIC BACKGROUND Akan 7 Ewe 2 Ga 1 Source: Fieldwork 2018. The study made use of only male young offenders. This was because the NGO through which the researcher had access to the offenders had only male young offenders going through their reintegration programme. This was because most cases involving female young offenders are 44 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh dealt with at home. When the case ends up in court, they mostly go through the diversionary measures because their offences are usually not serious. 4.3 Understanding the life Experiences of Juvenile Offenders To appreciate why young offenders, need to be reintegrated into the society after release from the Senior Correctional Centre, it is important to understand the life experiences of these young offenders before imprisonment, within a correctional facility and after release and this is because reintegration is a process which begins from the moment an offender is arrested, through to court, detention and when the offender is final released into society. 4.3.1 Experience before incarceration Before any child comes into conflict with the law, that child had a particular way of life before he/she committed an offence. Their experiences before detention will highlight some factors that lead juveniles into committing such offence and also how these young offenders can be reintegrated. This section throws light on some life experience of young offenders before incarceration. Below are some extracts from young offenders, their family and institutional respondents. The question on experience of young offenders before detention will help to know the factors that led offender to commit a crime and it will also help institutional respondent to know how to reintegrate the offender into the society. Thus, reintegration for a young offender from broken home will be different from reintegration of an offenders who is not from a broken home. Interviews with prison officers and staff of CRRECENT revealed that most of the young offenders who end up in Correctional facilities were from dysfunctional homes or had broken familial relationships. The young offenders who participated in the study were mainly from 45 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh poor socio-economic backgrounds or had no familial support. The extracts below illustrate this situation. Most of the children we are handling are children coming from homes that are dysfunctional. Parents have either separated, divorced, or deceased with nobody really taking care of the offender at the time they needed most. After speaking to them we also realised that some of them come from good home. (Ama, NGO Staff) Some of these youth offenders who are in the correctional centre are school drop-outs, others lived on the street with no family to support them. Others were staying with families who didn’t take interest in what the child was doing. (Attah, Prison officer) Some parents and other relation said this: …. Kweku’s association with his peers started when our grandpa died. Our grandpa will not allow him to follow friends so, he not being around was when kweku started associating with his peers. The person who keep him in check wasn’t there. (Abu - Kweku’s cousin) ... I am not always with my family in Tamale. I sometimes go to Buipe to work. I keep saying that there would have been some checks if we were staying together, and he cannot involve himself in certain things. (Mr. Armah – father of Yaw) 46 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Yaw’s father Mr. Armah, is a trotro driver. He was mostly not at home because of his work and he saw his absence at home to be the reason why his son, Yaw got into conflict with the law. His comment shows that the absence of a father at home gave his child the freedom to do things he wasn’t supposed to do and this landed him in the correctional centre. Mrs. Addo explained that some children commit crime because they don’t have anyone to cater for them but her son’s delinquency could be attributed to his own stubbornness and this is because he doesn’t lack anything. She is a trader and the husband is driver in a government institution. …Some children are being brought up in a good way, but because he/she is stubborn, it doesn’t matter what you will say, or how hard you beat him, he is not going to change from such lifestyle. With my son for instance, we as parent we are providing for him but because he has made up his mind that he won’t change he will not change. Some children will be involved in doing the wrong thing not because he/she is stubborn but because he/she is hungry. (Mrs. Addo – mother of Kwabena). The above comment shows a conflict views between parents/guardians and prison officer. Paradoxically, while the institutional respondents feel that parental irresponsibility experienced by the young offenders was critical to, they being in conflict with the law, some parents and other relations feel peer pressure and association of youth with bad friends is a critical experience that exposes youth offenders to crime and even though some also think they not being there for their child expose them to their peers. All these views clearly reflect the experiences of young offenders prior to their imprisonment. 47 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Both young offenders with and without the CRRECENT programme intimated that peer influences, leaving home to stay alone, living with a grandparent and single parent, truancy and dropping out of schools was critical to their brash with the law. Kweku is a young offender who stays with his cousin Abu. Kweku’s grandfather took care of him when he was alive and this was because kweku’s parent have a lot of children and their single room apartment was not big enough to accommodate everyone. Kweku’s grandfather was an Imam who use traditional medicine to cure people. Kweku narrated: …I was schooling when the person I was staying with (i.e. my grandfather) died so it affected my schooling. I stopped schooling when I was going to form two. It was around that time that I got into trouble. (Kweku, Maamobi) Another offender explained: …I was staying with my father. I dropped-out of school because I wanted money. My father forced me to go back to school but I didn’t listen to him. I left home and I started engaging in internet fraud. I needed a computer to browse so I went to steal one but I was caught. (Kojo, Abokobi) Kojo’s parent are separated. His father owns a provision shop. He was staying with his father before incarceration. He moved in with his maternal aunt after incarceration. …I lived with my father and my step-mother. My father is a prison officer and my step-mother is a house wife. My step-mother doesn’t treat me well especially when my father is not at home. She doesn’t give me food to eat and she does not want me touch anything at home. I start misbehaving anytime am hungry. (Kwesi, Nima) 48 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Kwesi’s parent are divorced. Before incarceration he was staying his father and his step-mother in Koforidua. He is current in Nima, Accra but he is homeless. His biological mother is a trader in Tema and he has lost her contact. Kwesi and Kojo’s case draws our attention to the fact that both young offenders are from broken homes. 4.3.2 Court experiences of young offenders and their Families. Next is the findings on the experiences of youth during arrest through to trial. Existing literature on juveniles has shown that mostly through the period of arrest through to trial, most of the laws are violated. A study by Mensah-Bonsu (1990-1992) and Osei (2013) and other researchers in the area of juvenile justice in Ghana reveal that the right of these juveniles during arrest is violated. Some Juveniles stay in police custody for more than 48hours. Also, when they are taking the statements of juveniles at the police stations, they do that in the absence of a parent, guardian, legal aid or a social worker. Young offenders and their families provided their views on their experience during arrest and when the juvenile was going through the court proceedings. From the families’ view, young offenders spend about 3-7days at the police cell before they were taken to court. At the court some young offenders had lawyers to represent them whiles others did not have lawyer and some of the case stayed in court for about a year. Some response from research participant: When Yaw was arrested, he stayed at the police station for about three days before he was taken to court. He was remanded for about 1-2 weeks in the Tamale prison and he was sent to Accra after the court sentenced him…. We understood what was going on during the trial. (Mr. Armah – Father of Yaw) 49 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh We went to court for about a year. … Kwabena was at the cells at Madina for three days. One of the senior officers told his colleagues that if the boss come around and he finds a juvenile in the cells they will be in trouble so they took him court …. We couldn’t afford a lawyer so we went to court without a lawyer. We understood what was happening in court but I believe we wouldn’t have gone to court for almost 1 year if we had a lawyer. (Mrs. Addo – mother of Kwabena) From the young offenders’ perspective, no family member showed up when they were arrested and when they were taken to court. Others had their family support throughout this period. One of the offenders stayed in the remand home for 8months before his sentence was given, others stayed there for a week and were bailed. A young offender who didn’t have anyone showing up when he went through the court process disclosed this: My father was called when I was arrested but he didn’t show up. I went through the court process alone. No family member showed up in court but I understood whatever was happening in court. (Kojo, Abokobi) Kwabena shared his experience: … I was remanded to Osu remand home for about a month. I went to court and I was bailed for that day. ...We went to court for about a year… the court sentenced me to the senior correctional centre for 1year… I understood what was happening in court (Kwabena, Aboba) 50 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Yaw was remanded to an adult prison, he shared his experience: I was taken to the Tamale prison for 1 week … Comparing the prison to the correctional centre, I prefer the correctional centre to the prison because the prison is chocked. The prisoners in one room are many and there is no enough space for everyone so we sleep sideways, and you can’t even turn when you lie down. The only comfort will be to sit up, but you can’t sit till day break. The mosquitoes were terrible. But at SCC you are given a bed just like when you are in the secondary school. (Yaw, Dansoman) The above comments showed that not all respondents were remanded to a juvenile remanded home, but others were remanded to the main prison and this in itself is in contradiction with the Ghana Juvenile Justice Act, 2003. Some young offenders were supported by family throughout the court proceeding and they were represented by a lawyer in court. Others didn’t have legal aid. A similarity from the comment is that both juvenile and their parents/guardian understood the court proceedings. 4.3.3 Experiences of offenders during detention. The philosophy behind juvenile detention as one officer puts it: is to reclaim the youth from the wasted life of crime. …They are young, and we should not just waste them. When they come into conflict with the law, we quickly assist them so that they can reclaim their lives and set them on good path (Afful, Prison officer). This section present experiences of the young offenders at the Senior Correctional Centre. Here, two groups of respondents provide their perspectives about juvenile experiences during their detention and stay at the Senior Correctional Centre. From the perspective of the prison officers, Juveniles without any strong interest in academics go through vocational training to acquire skills for artisanal trades. Those with interest in academic or have not yet completed their basic schooling are enrolled into the 51 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh school within the Senior Correctional Centre (SCC) and those who have completed Junior High School are enrolled into Senior High Schools outside the SCC. Those who go to schools outside, go without escort from any prison officer. There are also special sessions on educating juvenile about sexual reproduction, anger management, character studies. Respondents explained: …We have formal education up to JHS 3 within the correctional facility. Some of the juveniles also get admission into the Senior High Schools whiles they are in the Senior Correctional Centre… with the informal education/training there are various vocations. We have carpentry, metal works fabrications, tailoring, electrical works, auto mechanics and auto electricals (Attah, Prison officer) …some juveniles do the proficiency exams at the end of their training (NVTI). So, if they are able to go through training, they will be ok. ... The tailoring bit they write the NVTI proficiency examinations and quite several of them are certified one way or the other before they are discharged. (Anderson, Prison officer) The experiences of juvenile offenders within the centre included attending school or learning a trade, curtailing of their freedoms and movements, freedom to decide to partake in schooling or vocational training, learning from other juveniles, and counselling by non-governmental organizations and faith-based organizations. A respondent shared his experience and remarked: I think it is God and also because I was respectful, I didn’t suffer like how some juveniles were suffering in there. When I went to the SCC, I realised that you have to be there for three months before you can go outside the 52 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh SCC. But when I got there, I didn’t even spend up to three months and I was allowed to go outside…. I wanted to learn electronics but my sentence was too short to learn that trade. (Kweku, Maamobi) A respondent who believes his experiences at the SCC were positive elaborated: I had a good experience at the correctional centre. When I came into SCC, I liked how the officers treat we the young ones. You know we don’t stay in the dormitory doing nothing. We have everything to our accomplishment and benevolent churches come around and we fellowship together. So, when I met that experience, I was so glade. I can move up and down and talk to any officer. You see the officers are friendly and free with the inmate that if you will want to share a problem with them, you are free to do so. So that made me find comfort. I went to secondary school when I was in SCC and continued schooling when I was released. (Kwamena, Kpone) Another offender who felt his experience at the SCC was negative explained: As for there, it is controversial. It is not a good for a human being to live at that place. If you find yourself there you have to find something to do so you can stay out of trouble and when you get out, you can find something else to do. That’s all. How can a person be in a place that he will not have his peace of mind, someone will decide for you the time you will sleep and the time you will do everything? It more like your freedom has been taken away from you…. I learnt auto electricals when I was in Scc. I already knew what they 53 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh were teaching because I took the same program in secondary school (Ato, Osu) From the above comments, young offenders agreed with the prison officers on the services and support that is given to them. This including allowing them to go secondary school outside Scc and also learning a trade within Scc. Some have had some positive experiences at the facility that made them feel, it will contribute to changing their lives. Others also felt there was no transformation taking place. 4.3.4 Experience after release When it was time for juveniles to be release into the society, they tend to have all kind of expectations and things they want to do when they are released. Some young offenders were happy they were going home, others were not because they don’t know how the outside world will treat and receive them when they are released. Below are some experiences of these young offenders after their release from the correctional facilities. Generally, some young offenders use the skills they learnt in SCC but other don’t use the skills they acquired. Others go back to school and later fit well into the society, and other transition to become adult criminals. This is what some young offenders who had a privilege of enrolling in the NGO re-integration programme had to say about their post detention experiences. One positively recount: …going to school inside the senior correctional centre and completing JHS helped me to get admission into the secondary school when I returned from the SCC. (Kwamena, Kpone). Another juvenile lamented; 54 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh I wanted to learn electronics but as at the time they were not teaching that. I am currently learning how to repair Tv with the help of CRRECENT. (Kweku, Maamobi) Some young offenders went back to school to complete SHS with the help of CRRECENT. Other young offenders were also doing courses to further their education at the university. Others also are doing nothing. They simply went back home or back to the street to live alone. This is what some youth offenders who had not enrolled in CRRECENT re-integration programme had to say about their post detention experiences. One of them who was trained in fashion design and tailoring at the correctional facility remarked: I am just eager to go into sowing and fashion, but the work is not there. If I have gotten a job, I will not be walking around like this. You would have seen me in a shop, if it not my own shop, I will be working under someone… I left home (Koforidua) to look for job in Accra. My father has sold the sowing machine Scc gave to me when I was released. I wasn’t getting a job in Koforidua so I decided to come to Accra to look for one (Kwesi, Nima) He further lamented his current work for his daily survival: …I realised they have poured sand somewhere and because I was short of money, I decided to join the queue to pack the sand. So that is what I am doing now. We will sit beside the sand when somebody wants sand, then we load it in a truck and take it to the person and they pay us. Someone has also promised to employ me after the fasting. It a work and pay job. I am still on it, but I will see the person later. (Kwesi, Nima) 55 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.4 Crime Committed by Young offenders This section highlights the crimes juvenile interviewed committed or perceived to have committed before their incarceration. In general, crimes committed by juvenile offenders’ ranges from petty stealing, stealing, rape, defilement, unlawful entry, assault, armed robbery, and in rare cases murder. The table below shows the type of crimes committed by the juveniles, how old they were when they committed the offence. Table 3:Type of crimes committed Young offenders Age Young offenders Type of offence committed the committed offence Kojo 22 Stealing Kwabena 17 Defilement Kweku 20 Rape Yaw 18 Defilement Kofi 17 Stealing Kwamena 16 Defilement Kwesi 19 Stealing Ato 17 Assault Abdullah 17 Stealing Mohamed 16 Defilement SOURCE: Fieldwork 2018 10 young offenders were interviewed for the study. In terms of crimes committed, the study recorded 5 sexual assault (4 for defilement and 1 for rape), 4 stealing and 1 Assault. The type 56 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh of crimes committed by these young offenders confirms what the Institutional respondents said about the trend in crimes committed by young offenders. A respondent explained: Stealing really peaks, that is petty stealing but they are all grouped under stealing, followed by sexual assault and then unlawful entry… (Ama, NGO staff) Another issue was the fact that 3 of the offenders were above 18 years, but they were sentenced to the Senior Correctional Centre. This happened because one out of the 3 respondents above 18 years reduced his age but he has not caught so he was sent to a Juvenile court, the other said they didn’t commit the crime. 4.4.1 Why Young Offenders Committed those offenses As one of the NGO staff puts it, juvenile offenders “are victims of socio-economic difficulties in the country. They are not criminals. They are not criminals in the sense that, somebody somewhere has defaulted in their responsibility and that is what gave birth to what we see as juvenile criminals”. The section will try to establish the reasons why young offenders committed those crimes. In general, young offenders commit all types of crime ranging from petty stealing, stealing, rape, defilement, unlawful entry, assault, armed robbery, and in rare cases murder. However, the reasons of offenders committing these offences differ. The reasons why these crimes occurred could be attributed to socio-economic difficulties, parental irresponsibility, dysfunctional homes, association with bad friends, peer influences, lack of social support and stubbornness of an offender. For instance, there was one incidences of rape and four incidences of defilement. 57 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The first case of rape could be described as one where an association with bad friends led to the incarceration of a youth who only provided his room for the sexual act to take place. The respondent recounts his experience: what made me come into conflict with the law was that I helped my friend. My friend wasn’t having a room and I gave him my room and he came to have sex with his girlfriend in my room and that caused my arrest. … when the police caught my friend, they ask him where a small boy like him got a room to have sex with the girl. My friend told them that I gave him my room. The police said I agreed and supported what my friend did so they arrested me. The Madame (girl’s mother) reported the case as a rape case. The girl was above 18 years and she gave her consent. When we were arrested and sent to court, my friend run away so I was the only one left. (Kweku, Maamobi) This perceived youth offender had suffered because the real culprit of the supposed rape offence escape. However, the court somehow vindicated the youth offender. He narrated: …The judge helped me by sending me to the correctional centre. He said I didn’t know anything about the case if not that he would have send me to the main prison because I was 20years old when the incident happened. (Kweku, Maamobi) Kweku in this case was 20 years when the incident occurred. He doesn’t qualify under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2003 to be sentenced to the Senior Correctional Centre but he was sentenced to SCC and this is a clear violation of the Law. 58 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Another reason that respondent attributed to defilement was spirituality. Kwabena narrated his experience: For me, I didn’t do anything. It was a little girl that her mum accused me of defilement. The girl normally come to our house when my mum and my dad are around but suddenly her mum called and said I have defiled her daughter and I told her I haven’t done anything like that. At the police station, the girl’s mother said, she dreamt that I have defiled her daughter. Interestingly, they claim there was an evidence but my mother didn’t even see it. My mum kept saying this accusation was more spiritual than physical (Kwabena, Aboba) Another respondent narrated his experience: I didn’t know what I was doing. I think it is a spirit that forced me to do what I did. Seriously I don’t know why. Even though I was having a girlfriend I still went to her. I was surprised and shocked when it happened. As for me I am too known, so girls like me. Even in my area, I had girls chasing me. Each night a girl wants to see me. I still don’t understand the reason why I defiled that small girl. (Kwamena, Kpone) One issue about this case is the fact that a perceived young offender was put in the same cell as adult offenders. This exposure of the juvenile to adult offenders was also a contradiction to the law. 59 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Another reason attributed to defilement was association with bad friends. The respondent shared his experience: My ex-girl accused me of impregnating her and that was when I was writing my WASSCE. But I didn’t commit that offense and have always denied it. So, when I got home after my WASSCE, the girl’s family had lodged a complaint at the police station that I have impregnated their daughter. They met my parent so they can settle the case at home. I still denied it when my parent asked me so that how come the case was taken to the police. I was scared my friends will tease me when they find out but they saw it to be normal. (Yaw, Dansoman) This respondent had to plead guilty in order to avoid been jailed for 7 years. That is how he ended up in the Senior Correctional Centre. 4.5 Training programmes available in the Correctional Institutions Training and skills acquisition are central to any re-integration agenda within the Ghanaian juvenile justice system. The researcher wanted to find out the types of a training and treatment programmes in the correctional institution, who qualifies to participate in the training, how effective the programmes were toward reforming the young offender and whether the training was useful after they had left the correctional centre. 4.5.1 Education/ Vocational This section highlights the educational/vocational training available to young offenders and what qualifies a young offender to participate in the vocation/education training. This information was sought with the aim to bring to light whether all juveniles go through the 60 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh education/vocational training which is a tool for juvenile reformation and transformation in the correctional centre. Some responses from institutional respondents include the following: The vocation training in the correction centre ranges from carpentry, metal works fabrications, tailoring, electrical works, auto mechanics and auto electricals, beads work. With formal education, SCC provides education up to JHS 3 within the correctional facility. Then some of them also get admission into the senior high schools whiles they are in the institutions (Attah, Prison officer) Another respondent further explains what qualifies a juvenile to participate in the educational/vocational training. All of them qualify to do a trade or go to school but sometimes, some of them resist. As children, we use a lot of persuasion and explain to them the need to have something doing in the future. If the person comes and his sentence is short, then what we do is to just hold them in custody. That is when a lot of counselling activities are done instead of engaging them in the formal education or trade training. Because with that one, they wouldn’t finish before they are released…. The government through Ghana prisons provide the materials they use in learning the trade (Andoh, Prison officer) From one respondent’s perspective, a juvenile must have been committed to SCC for 6month to 1 year before that juvenile qualifies to take part in an education/vocation training. This confirms what the officer said. 61 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The respondent recounts his experience: When you are brought to SCC, you are given a year before you can start a trade. My time was almost due. I was there for about 6month and I haven’t started the trade so, I was forcing the officers. The maximum sentence is 3years, so most often they assess you for one year, look at your behaviour and they put you on a program. Mostly those given shorter sentences don’t force themselves to learn the trade but for me because I was optimistic, and I wanted to learn the trade, so tried and convinced them to let me learn the trade even though I had some few months before my release. Even when you have few months you can still force and learn the trade (Yaw, Dansoman) Another respondent explains why some don’t involve themselves in the training. Some people are a little bit difficult. Some were on drugs and narcotics etc, so they are kind of half mental (psychological issues), so with such individual when you force them to do any of the programme, they won’t do it, they prefer staying at their own quiet corner and when their time is up, they leave the centre. Sometimes, they do force those who are already learning the vocation to go to the shop if they don’t want to and those in school to go to school. (Kwesi, Nima) From the above responses, it is very clear that the duration of a young offender’s sentence plays a key part when it comes to qualifying him to partake in a vocational training. Previously juveniles were sentenced to 3years in SCC and it is very clear that this influence when juvenile can start a trade but with the new Juvenile Justice Act, which gives a minimum sentence of 3months and maximum of 3years, those who have short sentences are disadvantaged because they can’t learn the trade even when they have the desire to learn it. Also, a young offender respondent clarified that not everyone in SCC is involved in either education or vocational 62 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh training. Those in the education/vocation programme are forced to go to school and to go to shop. This depicts the kind of training they go through in SCC. 4.5.2 Treatment Programme Apart from education/vocation programmes that are available in the SCC, a treatment programme is a key component when it comes to reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of a young offenders. Treatment programmes are usually in the form of drug addiction treatment programme, anger management, counselling/ psychological programme. This treatment programmes are made available to help the young offender in their rehabilitation, transformation and also help in the successful reintegration of offenders. The drug addiction programmes are treatment programmes usually designed to help young offenders who are drug addicts and have come out of such addiction. Anger management helps young offenders to learn how to control their temper. This section throws more light on the treatment programmes available in SCC. Prison officers and young offenders share the same view that there are some kind of treatment programmes within SCC. The Senior Correctional Centre have counsellors who are officers, who take the young offenders through counselling sessions. They have other individuals, Faith-Based Organisations and NGO’s coming to SCC to counsel the young offender. When the need arises for them to seek treatment outside SCC, they do that. A respondent explained: We provide counselling. We also open our doors to all manner of religious organizations that come in frequently to also have religious sessions with the juveniles. It is mainly social psychological counselling and then religious activities. We also take them through anger management programme to help them control their anger. Unfortunately, we don’t have a drug addiction treatment intervention inside the SCC, however, if they 63 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh have problems, the clinical psychologist will advise probably for them to be taken to the mental hospital for some treatment. If we also observe and we think that the offender is emotionally disturbed and challenged, we also get some psychiatric intervention for him. And all these treatments are outside the correctional centre. (Attah, Prison officer) Another respondent throws more light on some treatment that takes place outside the Senior Correctional Centre. Health wise, we take some of them to the Police Hospital or 37 Military Hospital to be circumcised. Some of the guys who were brought to the centre because of defilement or rape were not circumcised. Through the interaction sessions we had with them we realised that they don’t have girlfriends because no girl wants to have a relationship with uncircumcised boy, so they forced themselves on them leading to rape or defilement. (Anderson, Prison officer) Some young offenders had the privilege to help with some treatment programmes within the Senior Correctional Centre. Kwesi, who was a dormitory prefect shared his experience: Because of my position, I was involved in a whole lot of things. …I was helping drug addicts to come out of their addiction. There was this organisation, PPAG, they gave us some materials and we use it to help our colleagues who are addicts. (Kwesi, Nima) Another young offender also explained how dormitory prefect serves as an intermediary between them and the prison officers. He explained: 64 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh We have counsellors among the officers, so if anyone have a problem, they just inform the leader and the leader will then inform the counsellors and a one on one meeting with the counsellor will be fixed for the offender to help him with the problem he is going through. (Yaw, Dansoman) Both prison officers and young offenders explained that within SCC, the main treatment programme is counselling but their doors are always open to FBOs and NGOs who come on board to encourage and counsel the young offenders. In other instances, when the need arises for them to seek treatment outside SCC, they do so. 4.5.3 Effectiveness of the available educational/vocational training and treatment programmes Next, is the findings on the effectiveness of the vocational, educational and treatment programmes in SCC. Juveniles are sent to the correctional centre to be transformed and reintegrated into the society. Transformation will occur when training and treatment programmes within the centre are effective. Effectiveness can be evaluated after the juvenile is released. In the Senior Correctional Centre, there are different types of vocational training. These include carpentry, metal works fabrication, tailoring, electrical works, auto mechanic and auto electricals and beads making. These vocations are being taught by officers in the Senior Correctional Centre and in cases where a new vocation is introduced and there is no expert at the Centre to teach that vocation, a teacher from outside is employed until a prison officer learns the vocation to take over. The materials and tools used to teach the trade are provided by the government of Ghana through the Ghana Prisons. NGOs and FBOs also help in providing tools and materials that juveniles need to learn the trade. They write the proficiency exams at the end of their training (NVTI) and quite a number of the juveniles are certified one way or the other before they are discharged. The school with the Senior Correctional Centre 65 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh has a combination of officers and teacher from GES teaching the juveniles. One challenge they face is not being able to go to school when some juveniles fight at school. They stay in their dormitories for some days before they go back to school. All groups of respondents provide their perspectives about the effectiveness of this programmes. From the perspective of Institutional respondents and the family, the vocational/education and treatment programmes transform the juvenile. However, when juveniles are released into the larger society, they encounter a lot of hindrances. Some juveniles go back to school after they are released whiles some use the skills, they learnt to work but others don’t use their skills. Some are recruited into the Police and Prison service, others further their education to higher levels and get employment. Some juveniles go into apprenticeship to polish the skill they learnt at the SCC and other juveniles also transition into adult criminals. A respondent explained: Most of the released juveniles are doing so well. Some are working with the skills they acquired others who went through formal education have been employed in other areas. Others have not done so well and have transition from juvenile crime into adult crime (Attah, Prison officer) A respondent explains why some juveniles don’t use the skills they learnt: Some juveniles learn the trade for learning sake so are not able to pursue it after their release so they end up doing something different (Andoh, Prison officer) Some young offenders gave an account of their transformation. They said the treatment and vocational/ educational programme transformed them others thought otherwise. Some young 66 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh offenders acquired new skills, but it didn’t help them in any way others were of the opinion that even though the educational programme was helpful, it has its own flaws. One of the respondents complained: Before I was sent to the SCC I did better in my BECE than when I was in SCC. This was because in the SCC when someone breaks the rules we don’t go to school for months or weeks before we go back to the classroom. The dormitory is always noisy so even if you are a captain and you want to learn you can’t concentrate. (Kwamena, Kpone) Another respondent explains why some young offenders were not transformed even when they go through the treatment, education/vocation training. I think transformation depends on the individual. Some of the children are very stubborn. The first day I entered the SCC I met one guy who was brought from Kumasi and it was a criminal offense which brought him there.… he was arrested after he was released from the SCC. He was arrested for theft and it was shown on TV3. Transformation depends on the individual. This guy passed a comment when they brought us to SCC, he said ‘‘for us we will not stop, we now going to pick gun to rob’’. (Kweku, Maamobi) I wasn’t born again when I went to the senior correctional centre. We had different church groups coming to the centre to share the word of God and all that. I became born again before I was released. (Alfred, Ridge) The above comment shows that the treatment, education/vocation training programmes to some extent help to reform and transform young offenders but transformation also depend on the 67 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh individual. A young offender can go through the SCC and be transformed, others can go through the same correctional centre and still come out worse. 4.6 Mechanism for pre and post-reintegration of young offenders in the correctional institution Reintegration of a juvenile who has been sentenced starts from the very day he starts serving his/her sentence. Reintegration comes in two folds, pre-release reintegration which takes place within the correctional centre and post release re-integration which takes place outside the correctional centre. The researcher wanted to identify the kind of mechanism or programmes available for pre and post release reintegration of juveniles in the Senior Correctional Centre and how these programmes helps young offenders to reintegrate. 4.6.1 Pre-release Reintegration This section present findings on pre-release reintegration programmes in the Senior Correctional Centre. Young offenders and institutional respondents provided their views on this issue. From the perspective of the institutional respondents, the SCC does not provide parole, but they have a discharge board who assesses young offenders before they are discharged. This assessment is done during the last 3months of an offender stay in SCC. An officer explained: We have a discharge board who assess the juveniles during the last 3month before their release. This is done to know whether the juvenile has been transformed or not. It is done by asking questions to assess and through that the discharge board is able to determine whether the offender have been 68 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh transformed or not. Apart from social welfare being on the discharge board they don’t provide parole to offenders. (Anderson, Prison officer) Juveniles are not taken through any preparation programme before release, but officers advise them to be good boys when they are released. Some juveniles were privileged to be given tools to work with when their time for release was approaching. Here is what one respondent said: I was given a sowing machine and am really grateful for that. I took it as my future capital and I used that machine when I went to fashion school after I was released. (Kwesi, Nima) A juvenile who had the opportunity to go outside SCC said this: I went out because I was given the opportunity not because they were preparing me for release. (Yaw, Dansoman) Another respondent shared his pre-release experience: I was not taken through any pre-release programme. The day I was discharged, the officers sat me down and advised me. (Kwabena, Aboba) The comment shows that SCC doesn’t have any special pre-release reintegration programme for juveniles. When it is time for release, the discharge board interviews and advises the juvenile and in some instance, they provide tools or seed money for a juvenile being released. 4.6.2 Post-release reintegration This section explains how the Senior Correctional Centre helps young offenders to reintegrate after release. The respondents provided their perspectives on post-release reintegration of young offenders. From the perspective of the prison officers, their service ends when the young offender is discharged. Ideally, they don’t do follow ups, but some officers do that on their 69 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh own. Some NGOs do follow up and provide after care services. According to the Prison officer, ideally reintegration of young offenders is the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare, but they are not doing reintegration due to lack of funds. An officer explained: the prison service does not have the mandate to do follow ups… Traditionally follow up is the role of social welfare. That’s why they are also members of the discharge board so that they can follow up on the young offenders in the community. But we don’t do that. Our work ends on the day we discharge them. I know that because we are human beings, we sometimes take particular interest in some of the young offenders and we follow up to check their progress and this is normally at the informal level. we are looking for an expanded role in the future that will also enable us to do follow ups. We know the Department of Social Welfare is also challenged by way of resources. So, they are also not able to undertake follow up activity as vigorously as it should be done. (Attah, Prison officer) In the case of NGOs and FBOs, a respondent explained: some of NGOs and FBOs have representatives on the discharge board. They sometimes provide seed money and tools. In situations where they donate machines and tools to the young offender being discharged, they follow up to see if they are using what they have acquired at the centre. (Anderson, Prison officer) As part of the institutional respondents, a staff of CRRECENT made reference to the fact that there are no “after care” programmes for juveniles in the country. A respondent explained: 70 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh … there is virtually no systematic programme in place in the country that takes care of after care and reintegration of discharge young offenders. (Joe, NGO staff). Comments from the Juveniles and their family were not different from what the institutional respondents said. From the offenders’ point of view, the Senior Correctional Centre and the Social Welfare does not check up on them but on some occasions some officers do check-up informally on them. NGOs such CRRECENT on the other hand do follow ups and support young offenders to settle in. The following are some responses from respondents: I didn’t see anything like follow ups on the part of the government. When it was time for his release, they just released him. CRRECENT took over and informed us that my cousin has been released and he wanted to learn a vocation (repairing Television). (Abu, Kweku’s cousin). Another respondent shared his experience: …right from the correctional centre I went to school and my director comes to my school to check up on me. (Kwesi, Nima) 4.7 The role of the family and other relations in reintegration of young offenders This section explains the roles the Family and close relations play in young offender reintegration. Without the support of families or close relations, it will be difficult for a young offender to reintegrate into the society. From the perspective of the institutional respondent, families have to provide social support for young offenders when they are in the correctional centre and when they are discharged from the correctional centre, this will help in their reintegration. A Respondent’s comment includes: 71 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh To large extent, most families don’t involve themselves in decision concerning their child in the correctional centre. You will be shocked that only a few take delights in following up on their child. Most of the families give up on these offenders. The few that come forward are involved in taken decision to help the offender. (Andoh, Prison officer) Parents and close relations also explained that family members should always be available for the child. They should monitor, advice and teach them the word of God. Also, both parents should work together to raise the child. They shouldn’t reject the child because he/she committed an offense, but they should draw them closer. Below are some responses from respondents: …No one rejected him. Everyone in the family still relate with him well. Everybody sees him as Kweku and not as an offender who have been in the correctional centre. (Kweku’s cousin) We have advised him. I think working together as parent in the upbringing of the child can help to put the child on the right path. (Mr. Armah, Father of Yaw) I have become very close with my son. … how you relate with the child, the advice you give to him and you have to also monitor his behaviour and this will help him not to go back to his deviant ways. You have to also show him 72 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh the Christian way, the ways of God, and it will keep him on the right path. (Mr. Oppong, Father of Kwamena) offenders who were ignored by their biological parents shared their experiences: My maternal Aunt was the only person who visited me when I was in the correctional centre. My father never visited and he didn’t show up when I was released. I kept asking myself where I was going after release. My aunt took me home when I was released from the centre … I was happy I was going home but I was also scared because no family member showed up when I was arrested. (Kojo, Abokobi) When I got to the house there was no joy, it was like I have to isolate myself because I thought that coming from a place like the correctional centre my family should have received me with Joy, but I didn’t see anything like that. so, I just kept to myself and observe what was actually happening. (Kwesi, Nima) This young offender ended leaving home because his step-mother didn’t want him there. He is currently living on the street in Accra. 4.7.1 The of role of CRRECENT toward young offender reintegration. CRRECENT is an NGO in Ghana whose interest and focus is on the protection of children and youth. They deal with protection of juvenile’s right from the time they are arrested through to the time they are reintegrated into society. What motivates CRRECENT is the passion to help the vulnerable. They are of the view that the vulnerable in society must be helped to stand on their feet and also young people should be protected, helped and directed to an independent 73 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh fulfilled life. Their core programmes include advocacy platform for children and youth which runs every quarter and they package the recommendations for policy attention, girls and young women empowerment programmes and the juvenile justice programme. The girls’ empowerment programme is a donor triggered programme, but the juvenile justice project and the child and youth advocacy policy platform are their own initiatives. What motivated them into juvenile justice was a study CRRECENT conducted which revealed that there was virtually no systematic programme in place in the country that takes care of “after care” and reintegration of discharged juveniles. CRRECENT have been dealing with “after care” of discharged young offenders since 2011. CRRECENT does monitoring, they pay personal visit to the young offenders when resources are available, they invite role models and churches to speak to the juveniles. They also contribute towards rehabilitation in the Senior Correctional Centre by sending food items there. They also send role models and churches to talk to the juveniles on entrepreneurship, career modelling etc. Over the years, CRRECENT has been able to help discharged juveniles to reintegrate successfully into the society. They help discharged juveniles to go back to school (i.e. paying their school fees and also give them pocket money). They also put other juveniles into vocational training and they provide tools which help them to use the skills they learnt from the Senior Correctional Centre. Currently, CRRECENT does not have a shelter for discharged young offenders going through its reintegration programme. One challenge that CRRECENT face is lack of funds and this limits them. Another problem has to do with follow- up for juveniles who are not in Accra. Below is the presentation on the role CRRECENT plays in juvenile reintegration in the Ghanaian society. CRRECENT starts reintegration when the juveniles are in the Senior Correctional Centre. They continue with after care when juveniles are released and this process continue until the juvenile settles fully into the society. 74 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CRRECENT integration programme can be grouped into pre-release reintegration and Post- release reintegration. 4.7.2 CRRECENT Pre-release reintegration CRRECENT staff stated that “The more effective the rehabilitation is the less complicated the reintegration should be and so we see ourselves as even part of the rehab”. This statement shows that juvenile reintegration by CRRECENT starts in the correctional centre. According to the intuitional respondents (Prison officers and NGO staffs) CRRECENT provides social psychological counselling and religious services. They also provide food, medication, educational materials etc. to the Senior Correctional Centre. They send role models to talk to the juveniles in the Senior Correctional Centre. Remarks from respondents include: Sometimes we send role models there, we send church groups there, we go to talk to them on entrepreneurship, career modelling and so on and so forth. We send them items, food items. So, we go in there, talk with them and encourage them. (Samuel, NGO Staff). A respondent said this: NGOs do help very well in rehabilitation and transformation. Without them this cannot be done. (Anderson, Prison officer) A young offender also shared his view on the CRRECENT pre-release reintegration Programme. They came to the SCC and I met them there. I knew them before I was released. They always come there to advise us. They also organise programmes and they bring people and church groups to talk to us. (Kwabena, Aboba) The extract above shows that CRRECENT reintegration begins within the Senior Correctional Centre and this helps in juvenile rehabilitation. 75 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4.7.3 CRRECENT Post-release reintegration Apart from engaging in pre-release reintegration for juveniles within the Senior Correctional Centre, CRRECENT is also known for post-release and after care programmes for juveniles who have been discharged from the Senior Correctional Centre. CRRECENT post-release reintegration programme doesn’t take a particular format. They do case by case reintegration for juveniles, counselling family members to support juveniles, they provide Psycho-social counselling for juveniles, they do follow ups, support juveniles in school and in apprenticeship, pay visits to the juveniles, they organise home coming and they bring role models to talk to them. They involve parents when it comes to taking decision about the child. A respondent’s remark includes: … there is no special reintegration package. It’s on case by case basis. All that some of the children need is psycho-social counselling to let them know that all is not lost and to lift their self-esteem… we call them occasionally to encourage them. We also realised that the parents are equally affected by whatever event it was that send the child into detention. They also need a lot of head healing so we talk with them. (Ama, NGO staff) … Some of the young offenders go back to school, others go through informal apprenticeship because they dropped-out of from school at an early stage. …we support them along those lines but overall, we do monitor and we keep record of everything so that we can talk about the trends and the pattern of how this particular boy is reintegrating. We also pay personal visits when we have the resources. … So even before we commit ourselves, we bring the parent here and we all agree on what we are going to do. We make them sign 76 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh an agreement note, the boy also signs before we commit ourselves then we start. (Samuel, NGO staff) 4.7.4 Impact of CRRECENT reintegration on young offenders The CRRECENT reintegration programme has helped a lot of young offenders to develop their self-esteem and reintegrate into society. A respondent shared his experience: If I didn’t meet CRRECENT, I don’t know where I will be. I was still doing bad things after I was released. At the early stages with CRRECENT, I wasn’t transformed but I was always pretending. As time went on, I gradually changed. CRRECENT never gave up on me, they continued with counselling and I was able to change from my bad ways. (Kojo, Abokobi) Kojo is currently a pastor and he give credit to CRRECENT. He is one of the people CRRECENT use to advice and encourage the boy that they can make it after release from the Senior Correctional Centre. Other respondents gave their remarks: Most of the friends I got to know when I was at the SCC, CRRECENT have really help them. They have helped some a lot which I can boast about. I have a friend who stays with me in Dansoman that CRRECENT is furthering his education to secondary school. I can say they are doing their best. And what they are doing is helping us. Calling to check up on us and to see how we are doing also help a lot. It makes us remember we came from. Even when you are forgetting who you are and what you went through, as they keep calling 77 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh and encouraging us and letting you know that they are here to help in case you need anything (Yaw, Dansoman) With my school fees, they really tried for me. If my dad was the one paying my school fees, I will be sacked from school because I haven’t paid my fees but since I went to SHS I wasn’t sacked from school. When I tell CRRECENT school is reopening they just pay my school fees. They pay directly to the school. (Kwamena, Kpone) The comments above show how these young offenders appreciate the work CRRECENT is doing for them. 4.8 Discussion of findings This study had five objectives. First, it sought to understand the life experiences of young offenders. The experiences of young offenders can be seen through the stages prior to detention, the court proceedings, within detention and after detention. Before detention, it is observed that the young offenders in this study were coming from either a negative or a positive background. Most of them have either had the experience of living in a dysfunctional home with poor socio- economic status or experienced living in a normal home with good socio-economic status. Notwithstanding the facts that a young offender lived in a deprived, affluent, broken or stable home, other factors such as absence of family/parental responsibility and emotional support, individual stubbornness on the one hand, and peer influences on the other have significantly tended to predispose young offenders to delinquency. This finding confirms Boakye, 2013 and Abrah 2014 finding that before teenagers get to put up a delinquency act circumstances such as inadequate family support and deviant peer pressure/influences them. 78 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Also, experiences from the court proceedings stage reveal that there was legal aid for most of the young offenders and at least a family representation. What was striking is that some parents and guardians never understood the whole court proceedings of their ward. Another striking observation during the court proceeding stage is the role of the judge. Judges were seen to be acting in the interest of the juvenile offender. This is a typical manifestation of the welfare model of juvenile justice where, it is assumed that young people are more susceptible and open to rehabilitation and the judge in the court usually undertakes intervention measures to address juvenile crime (Odhiambo, 2010). Some juveniles prior to detention were on remand in Adult Prison, this contradict provisions in the juvenile justice Act 2003 section 23, sub-section 6 which state that “A juvenile shall not be placed on remand in an adult prison”. This observation has also been made by other studies (Mensah-Bonsu,1990-1992; Osei, 2013,). Experiences at the detention stage is seen in either a young offender pursuing an academic career or a vocational/technical training to learn a trade. Young offenders with the requisite academic background are automatically enrolled in the school at the SCC or outside the SCC. A positive observation about this is that truancy is curtailed and young offenders with initial disinterest in schooling are motivated to pursue their academic career. However, the practise/norm of offenders not going to school because some other juveniles fought in class as well as periodic unavailability of teachers at the SCC delay the youth’s academic progress. One observation about those who had the option of learning a trade is the fact that it is not imposed on them. The young offender has the choice to either learn or not to learn a trade. This show that the juvenile’s rights and choices are respected even when they are in the Senior Correctional Centre. A study by Amenyendzie (1998) at the Ghana Borstal Institute now the Senior Correctional Centre found that most of the juveniles had to provide their own tools before the commencement of trade training. The findings of this study showed that juveniles were provided with tools and raw materials by the government through the prison service to 79 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh learn the trade within the Senior Correctional Centre, but they were not given any tools or machines to work with after their discharge. Experiences at the post detention stage reflects a situation of grim opportunities and mounting challenges for young offenders. Young offenders who need to continue schooling are mostly unable to do so unless Non-Governmental Organization, Faith-Based Organization or an individual philanthropy come to support them. It is yet to be seen how the free Senior High School programme can support these group of discharged juveniles. Those who learnt a trade also lack the requisite tools and machinery to put to use the skills they have acquired during their stay at the Senior Correctional Centre. This situation means that young offenders are at high risk to graduate into adult criminals. Also, this study discovered that young offenders above 18years who are by law seen as adult and should be dealt within the adult court were tried in the juvenile court and sentenced to the Senior Correctional Centre. This finding shows a contradiction in the law and what is being practised. A study by Mensah-Bonsu (1990-1992) also revealed a contradiction in the law when her findings revealed that juveniles were being sentence to adult prison. The second objective was to find out the kind of training programmes available in the correctional institutions and how effective they are in transforming young offenders. It was observed that through the vocational training at the Senior Correctional Centre, any young offender who made a choice to learn a trade acquired some valuable skills. Some of them go further to write certification exams such as NVIT. One observation is that offenders who pursue Senior High School education during their stay at the Senior Correctional Centre are allowed to go to school without any escort. This further reflects the welfare attribute of the juvenile justice system as well as ensuring that the provision of privacy promulgated in the juvenile Act is respected. In all, both the education and employment needs of the offender are targeted by 80 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh the Senior Correctional Centre. This approach by the SCC is to tackle the key barriers that the young offenders face when re-entering their community i.e. failure to stay enrolled or attend school (Mathur & Clark, 2014) or be employed 6 months after re-entering the community (Bullis et al., 2002). In terms of the treatment programmes, it was revealed that counselling of young offenders is predominant. This is done mainly by prison officers, NGOs and Faith-based organisations. There are no therapeutic programmes at the SCC. Drug addicts are normally sent to the psychiatric hospital for treatment and uncircumcised youth offenders are normally sent to the hospital for circumcision. Looking at the current training and treatment programmes in place, the question to ask is how effective are these programmes in rehabilitating the juvenile offender? The answer is that despite the challenges that the Senior Correctional Centre faces, these programmes have supported some young offenders to pursue an academic career and other have gained vocational skills. In terms of the counselling and mentoring programme, most of the young offenders have become Christians and are willing to abide by the moral teachings of the Bible. This reflects the Faith-Based approach to the re-integration of juvenile offenders. The third objective was to understand the pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes of the Senior Correctional Centre. As indicated earlier, officially there is no pre- release reintegration programme or parole practised by the SCC. But in the absence of parole there is a discharge board which is supposed to come up with a farewell programme. This board mostly exist in name and mostly involves prison officers and other members of the board generally giving advices to the juveniles who are about to be discharged. However, some benevolent Prison officers do informally assist some released young offenders who have acquired vocational skills and assist other offenders to continue their education. There are no 81 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh systematic programmes in place in the country that takes care of “after care” and reintegration of discharged juveniles. Going by the Ghanaian juvenile justice system, the rehabilitation of young offenders ends with the Senior Correctional Centre then the Social Welfare Department takes over with parole services and follow-ups in the process of re-integration. This responsibility has however become dormant and parents/guardians of young offenders have lamented bitterly about the system leaving the young offenders on their own after rehabilitation. The neglect of parole services and follow-ups by the Social Welfare deviate immensely from the Juvenile Justice Act (JJA). Logistical support has been a major constraint in realising this function of the Social Welfare Department. Even though the prison service had wanted to come up with their own probation officers this too has not seen fruition for lack of logistical support and funding. In the nutshell, the post re-integration space has been occupied by NGOs and Faith-Based Organisations who try to play some of the roles of the Social Welfare Department. CRRECENT has been very instrumental in coming up with the pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes to help juvenile offenders in Ghana. The fourth objective sought to determine the roles that families (guardian) and neighbours/friends play in the reintegration of young offenders. Broadly, the study reveals that to a large extent families and other relations have been supportive in the process of reintegrating juvenile offender. Even though the Ghanaian Juvenile Justice Act make provision for reintegration to take place, it has not been used frequently by the juvenile justice system and in cases where it has been used, it has not been effective because parents/ guardians are not oriented to enhance the re-integration efforts. The last objective sought to examine the contribution of CRRECENT to juvenile reintegration into the society. CRRECENT has made an immense contribution to juvenile reintegration in Ghana. It has been very active in both pre-release and post-release stages of reintegration. At the pre-release stage, it has initiated social psychological counselling and religious services, 82 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh provided food, medication and educational materials to support young offenders in the senior correctional centre. At the post-release stage, it has been involved with getting family members prepared psychological to support juvenile, psycho-social counselling for juveniles, following up, counselling parent among other needs of young offenders after incarceration. One striking observation has been the counselling of the parents of the young offender. CRRECENT takes time to counsel parents who have been affected psychological by their child’s behaviour. This helps the parent to accept the child back home and help them to re-integrate. This service is not part of the process of the juvenile justice system in practice. CRRECENT has also supported young offenders in school and apprenticeship and providing seed money and tools to help young offenders use the skills they acquired at the centre. Also, the counselling sections that CRRECENT organise for family members of the juvenile offender helps to heal the relationship between the juvenile offender and their families. This shows that the CRRECENT reintegration programme use the restorative justice model which aims at healing the relationship between the offender and victim (family). From the preceding discussions, the findings based on each objective has thrown light on the juvenile justice process. In figure 1, the conceptual framework on the juvenile justice process depicts four broad phases. First, is the Arrest Phase where a police officer can arrest a juvenile with or without a warrant. The Juvenile Justice Act prescribed that those who arrest a juvenile offender should go the extra mile to protect the privacy of the juvenile. There may be many ways to achieve this and mostly the police must avoid openly handcuffing the juvenile. Sometimes they can do the arrest by inviting the juvenile to the police station or go to the place of arrest without wearing a police uniform. This privacy principle was mostly violated for the majority of juvenile respondents in this study. Also, some juvenile respondents on arrest were initially detained in cells with adult criminals for quite some time before they were processed for court. What these points to is that fact that some police officers know the laws with respect 83 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh to juveniles and others are not well versed with the laws. The police have to spend some time in investigating thoroughly some of the cases before effecting an arrest. They should also be seen in promoting alternative measures such as restitution for petty theft and also involving some elders in the community to help resolve some of the minor offences rather than resorting to the legal system. Second, is the court proceeding phase. For most of the respondents for this study, they had a legal representation in court as required under the Juvenile Justice Act. However, the process of being in remand for a longer period of time until they were given bail and in some instances until their case is finally determined was very unpleasant for most young offenders. Some of the young offenders were placed in cells with adult offenders for some period of time. This finding supports the study done by UNICEF (2005) to assess the state of juvenile justice administration in Ghana (1993-2003). That study drew attention to the fact that some juveniles were in the same cell with adult offenders and there is the need for juveniles to be separated from adult offenders. It can be seen that judges have really protected the interest of young offenders in all the cases encountered in this study. The third phase of the juvenile justice process is when a juvenile is sent to a correctional centre. These correctional facilities have proven to be a good rehabilitation place for most juvenile offenders who were sentenced to those facilities. The study showed that young offenders who participated in the study have found their way back to school, others have had vocational training. The majority have had the opportunity to be counselled and a few have had opportunity to be in a treatment programme by NGOs or Faith-Based Organisations. Despite this, many challenges exist especially, officially putting in place effective pre-release and post- release reintegration programmes. 84 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh The last phase of the juvenile justice process is the re-integration phase. The Department of Social Welfare is responsible for reintegration of juveniles in Ghana. This means that the juvenile justice system of Ghana does not end at the detention stage. Currently, there is no systematic programme in place in the country that takes care of after care and reintegration of discharged juveniles. The correctional institution and the social welfare department do not do the basic activity of following up on juveniles after release. The Social Welfare Department due to lack of logistical support and funding has neglected their role in providing parole services and follow ups which is critical for a smooth reintegration of juvenile offenders in the society. As observed, the NGO, CRRECENT has provided immense support at the re-integration phase. They have done follow ups for a few young offenders that are enrolled in their re-integration programme. They are also involved in the rehabilitation process. They have supported the education of some young offenders and provided tools and machinery for work for other offenders. Also, some prison officers and Faith-Based Organisations have sponsored some of these juveniles back to school, as well as providing tools for a few to start work on the vocation that they learnt while in detention. 85 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Introduction This is the last chapter of the dissertation and it presents the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. Although a number of studies have been conducted on the juvenile justice system within the Ghanaian context, there is little knowledge about pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes as well as the role of the community, including the family and social support system, Faith-Based and Non-Governmental Organizations play to ensure the reintegration of young offenders into the society. Anecdotal evidence from individuals who have met offenders or ex-offenders seem to indicate that re-integration programmes and community support services are typically absent or ineffective in Ghana. This study sought to fill this gap by using qualitative research approach to analyse the perspectives of correctional service providers, and key family members of young offender and young offenders regarding how juvenile offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society after release from correctional centres. Specifically, the objectives of the study are to examine the life experiences of juveniles who come into conflict with the law, examine the kind of training and therapeutic programmes available in the correctional institutions and their effectiveness, examine pre-release and post-release reintegration programmes available in correctional institutions, examine the roles families (guardians) and neighbours/friends play in the reintegration of juvenile offenders, and the contribution of CRRECENT (a local NGO) toward juvenile reintegration into society. Using a qualitative research method, the researcher was able to trace and explore the life experiences of 10 young offenders who were detained in the senior correctional centre, have been released and are reintegrating with or without the help of the Child Research Resource 86 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Centre (CRRECENT). A total number of 23 respondents participated in the study. They include 10 young offenders; 6 young offenders are in the CRRECENT re-integration programme and 4 of the young offenders are not in the CRRECENT reintegration programme. All 10 young offenders are residing Accra as well as 5 Prison officers at the Senior Correctional Centre, 2 staff of CRRECENT and 6 family members of the young offenders. 5.2 Summary The study showed that the life experiences of young offenders who participated in this study can be seen through the stages before detention, the court proceedings, within detention and after detention. Notwithstanding the fact that a young offender lived in a deprived, affluent, broken or stable home, other factors such as the absence of family/parental responsibility and emotional support on the one hand and peer influences on the other, have significantly tended to predispose a young offender to delinquency. At the court proceeding stage, judges were seen to be acting in the best interest of the young offender. This is a typical manifestation of the welfare model of juvenile justice where, it is assumed that the youth or young people are more susceptible and open to rehabilitation. At the detention stage, young offenders either pursue an academic career or a vocational/technical trade. This has been critical towards their reintegration into the society. Post-detention experiences reflect a situation of grim opportunities and mounting challenges for young offenders. Findings from the second objective reveal that academic and vocation training programmes have been the main approach the SCC is using to tackle the key barriers that juveniles face when re-entering their community i.e. failure to stay enrolled or attend school and being employed some few months after re-entering the community. Counselling of young offenders is the predominant treatment programme available at the SCC. Also, the variety of vocational 87 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh skills, formal education and counselling are effective in the rehabilitation of the young offender. Findings for objective three show that the Senior Correctional Centre does not officially have a pre-release reintegration and post-release reintegration programmes. In place of this, there is a discharge Board which merely exists in name. However, some benevolent Prison officers do informally assist released young offenders who have acquired vocational skills and also help other offenders to continue their education. Findings from objective four reveal that to a large extent families and other relations have been supportive in the process of reintegrating young offenders. Findings from objective five shows that the NGO, CRRECENT has made immense contributions to juvenile reintegration in Ghana. They have been very active in both pre-release and post-release stages of reintegration with many interventions for young offenders. 5.3 Conclusions On the basis of the responses generated by the participants with respect to how young offenders are reintegrated into the Ghanaian society after being released from the Senior Correctional Centre, the following conclusion were made. However, it must be noted that the entire narratives as represented in this study reflects the view of the minority young offenders in Ghana, therefore the findings cannot be generalized to a larger population. Nevertheless, the respondents ‘life experience after serving time in the correctional centre provides useful insights in our attempt to explain how these young offenders reintegrate into the society. On the basis of these findings the following conclusions were drawn. In reference to experience of juveniles before detention and within the correctional centre, the study revealed that factors such as the absence of parental/ family responsibility and emotional 88 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh support, peer pressure, and one stubbornness have a significantly tendency to predispose them to delinquency. Most young offenders appreciate the counselling and modelling time they had in the correctional centre. They see it has helping them develop their self-esteem. They also took religious time seriously and this helped in the reformation and reintegration. The help provided by NGOs and FBOs towards pre-release of young offenders helps in juvenile reformation and rehabilitation which aid in reintegration to some extent. Also, with reference to the education/vocational training programmes, the study revealed that in terms of learning vocational trade and acquiring skills some young offenders don’t use the skills they acquired during their stay in the Senior Correctional Centre because they don’t get people to support them in buying tools, they need to be able to work with the skills they acquired. Also, reformation and transformation of juveniles in the Senior Correctional Centre depends on the individual more than the system put in place. This reveals that, no matter what the officers do to help a juvenile in his reformation, if the juvenile does not make up his mind to change, transformation can never take place. With reference to pre and post-release reintegration programmes in the SCC, the findings show that the absence of pre-release (parole) and post-release (After Care) reintegration makes it difficult for most young offenders who don’t get social support either from the family or NGOs to successfully reintegrate into the society. The research also reveals that there is a gap between what is practiced and what is mandatory in the Juvenile Justice Act, 2003. The Juvenile Justice Act, 2003 (ACT 653), talks about reintegration as part of the transformation and reformation process. But in practice transformation ends after rehabilitation and the reintegration aspect is ignored. With reference to the family’s contribution towards young offender reintegration, there is evidence that both extended and nuclear family relations play social supportive roles in the 89 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh reintegration process and this prevent young offenders from going back to reoffend. This also means that family rejection affects juvenile reintegration negatively. With reference to CRRECENT contribution to reintegration, the findings show that CRRECENT has up to date, made quite a significant contribution towards the welfare of young offenders both during and the pre-release and post-release stages of reintegration process, through counselling, religious indoctrination, financial as well as material support. This initiative has helped a lot of young offenders to turn away from life styles that could have cause them to come into conflict with the law again. 5.4 Recommendations In view of the findings of the study, the following recommendations are critical to enhance the reintegration young offenders into our society. a. The juvenile courts should ensure that juvenile cases are dealt with on time, to help juveniles in school to concentrate on their school. b. Therapeutic treatment programmes for drug addicts should be made available inside the Senior Correctional Centre, to facilitate the smooth transformation of juveniles who are addicted to drugs. c. Counselling inside and outside the Correctional Centres should continue because it helps the young offender to regain their self-esteem, hope and motivation for a new beginning. d. The Social Welfare Department apart from being on the discharge board in the Senior Correctional Centre should also provide license (parole officers) who will follow up on the young offender until he gets involved in some kind of constructive activities in the society. 90 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh e. The government should equip the Senior Correctional Centre with resource that will help them to provide some tools for juveniles after learning the trade. This will help juveniles to use the skills they learnt in the Senior Correctional Centre to make a living. f. Government should provide logistics (material and financial) to equip the Senior Correctional Centre to do a complete rehabilitation and reintegration. g. Other Faith-Based Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations should come on board to help juveniles settle into the society after release. h. The public should be educated against stigmatization, discrimination and prejudice about juvenile offenders i. CRRECENT is doing a good work, so they should be assisted keep it up and even though they are sometimes handicapped when it comes to resources, they should try and provide those who learn the vocational trade with tools to help them start some work to make a living. 91 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh REFERENCES Aalsma, M. C., White, L. M., Lau, K. S. L., Perkins, A., Monahan, P., & Grisso, T. (2015). Behavioral health care needs, detention-based care, and criminal recidivism at community reentry from juvenile detention: A multisite survival curve analysis. 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T., Baglivio, M. T., & Piquero, A. R. (2017). The relationship between adverse childhood experiences and recidivism in a sample of juvenile offenders in community- based treatment. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 61(11), 1210-1242. Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods (5th edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage publications. Zajac, K., Sheidow, A. J., & Davis, M. (2015). Juvenile justice, mental health, and the transition to adulthood: A review of service system involvement and unmet needs in the US. Children and youth services review, 56, 139-148. Zehr, H. (2004). The little book of restorative justice. New Zealand: Sage publication. 100 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh APPENDICES Appendix A: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR JUVENILES WHO ARE CURRENTLY IN THE CRRECENT PROGRAM. A. Socio-demographic data 1. Sex 2. Age 3. level of education 4. Ethnicity 5. Religious affiliation 6. Where do you come from? 7. Where do you stay? (before and after incarceration) 8. Do you live with your parent? If no, who do you live with? 9. What’s your parent/guardian’s Occupation? B. Life experiences 10. What brought you into contact with the law? a. How old where you when you committed that offense? b. Why did you commit that offense? c. What was the feeling when you were arrested? 11. How long did you stay in the Senior correctional Centre? a. Can you tell us about some of your experiences in the Senior correctional Centre? 12. From your experience in the Senior Correctional Centre, will you say you have been transformed? Why? 101 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh C. Skills and training programmes in Senior Correctional Centre. 13. What type of training did you go through in the Senior Correctional Centre? 14. Did you learn anything new from this training? If yes, a. What skill did you acquire and how will it help you in the larger society? 15. Does everyone automatically qualify to partake in this training? a. If no, why? b. If yes, can you opt out? 16. Were you taken through any treatment programme? a. If yes, what kind of treatment programme was it? D. Mechanisms put in place in the Senior Correctional Centre to aid reintegration 17. How did you feel when your time for release was approaching? 18. How did the Senior Correctional Centre prepare you for your release? 19. Were you taking through any programme to help in your re-entry into the society? a. If yes, what can you say about this programme? E. Role of the family and friends in reintegration 20. Did any of your parent (guardian) or friends show up during your arrest, court proceeding, your stay in the correctional facility and during your release? a. If no, Why? b. How frequent did your parents/guardians visit you during your stay at the Senior Correctional Centre? 21. How did your family and friends receive your after release? 102 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh F. Role of CRRECENT in juvenile reintegration 22. How long have you been in CRRECENT? a. Why did you join CRRECENT? 23. Can you tell us about the CRRECENT reintegration programme? 24. What do you want to do after you leave CRRECENT? 25. From your opinion, will CRRECENT reintegration programme help in your reintegration? If yes, a. How will the programme help in your reintegration into society? 26. Is there any suggestion you want to give to improve CRRECENT programme? Appendix B: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR CRRECENT STAFF A. General information 1. Sex 2. How long have you been working with this organization? 3. What's your current position in CRRECENT? a. What are your responsibilities in CRRECENT? 4. What motivates you to work with Juveniles? a. What is your opinion about them? 5. What is the socio-economic/educational background of this these juveniles? 6. What type of delinquent acts brought them into conflict with the law? 7. What are the major problems faced by juveniles in their daily life? 8. How long do these juveniles stay in the CRRECENT reintegration programme? 103 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh B. CRRECENT reintegration program 9. What the main objective of CRRECENT? 10. What reintegration programmes do your organization operate with? a. When does your institution start the reintegration process and when does it end? b. How is it done? c. How many juveniles have gone through CRRCENT reintegration programme? d. How do these programmes help in juvenile reintegration? 11. In your opinion, do the juveniles show any interest in the reintegration programmes organised for them? a. To what extent do the juveniles involve themselves in the reintegration programme? 12. Do you follow up on juveniles who have gone through the CRRECENT reintegration programme? Why? C. Role of guardian in reintegration 13. Do you involve parent/guardian in your programme? If yes, what role do they play? 14. In your opinion, how do parent/guardian contribute to juvenile reintegration back to the society? 104 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Appendix C: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR PRISON OFFICERS IN THE SENIOR CORRECTIONAL CENTRE Position. Sex. A. Assessing the skills and training programmes in the Senior Correctional Centre. 1. What the philosophy behind juvenile detention? 2. What is the ratio of staff to children? 3. Are the staff given specific training on handling juvenile issues? 4. Is there an education or training programme in this facility? If yes, a. What type of education/training is available? b. Which people oversee the education/training programme? 5. What qualifies a juvenile to partake in the education or training programme? 6. Does the institution provide the juvenile with learning/training materials? 7. In your opinion do the vocational trades help short termers in learning the skills? 8. How does the acquired skills help in the rehabilitation of the juveniles? 9. Can you give us instances of juveniles using the skills they acquired after release? 10. What type of therapeutic treatment programmes are given to juveniles? B. Role of Guardian in juvenile rehabilitation and reintegration 11. Are visitors allowed in the SCC? if yes, a. How frequent can they visit? b. What duration of time is allowed for a juvenile to stay with a visitor? 105 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 12. Are there means through which juveniles communicate with their relatives? 13. Are parent/guardian involved in decisions concerning their wards? If yes, which kind decision do you involve them in? C. Reintegration of juveniles 14. Are juveniles reintegrated into the society after serving their term? If yes, a. How are they reintegrated? b. When does reintegration start for juveniles in the Senior Correctional Centre? 15. Are there NGOs or Faith-Based Organizations that help juveniles during their preparation for release and support after release? If yes, a. What do their activities consist of? b. To what extent are NGOs helpful in the rehabilitation, reformation and reintegration of these juveniles? 16. Is there any parole time set upon release of a juvenile? Explain 17. Are there any arrangements put in place in terms of schooling for the juveniles after their release? why? 18. Does the institution maintain contacts or visits the juveniles after they leave the correctional centre? 19. What do you think can be done to improve juvenile reintegration in Ghana? 106 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Appendix D: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR PARENT/GURDIAN 1. Sex 2. Household status of respondent 3. What is the relationship between you and your child? 4. Were you living with the child at the time of the arrest? 5. In your opinion what are the common reasons which prompt juveniles to come into contact the law? 6. Were you informed when the child was arrested? 7. Can you remember how long the child stayed in the police station before being brought to a court of law? Was the child given legal aid? 8. During the court case, did you understand the procedure and why the court sentenced your child to detention? 9. Were you given a chance of communicating with your child when in detention? 10. Are you allowed to visit your child in the facility? 11. Have you ever attended seminars or trainings on preventing delinquency and treating young children with conduct problem? 12. Do you think there are measures put in place to ensure successfully reintegration of juveniles in to community after finishing detention term? 13. Where you involved in decision making which concern your ward when he/she was in the correctional institution? 14. Did the relationship between you and your child change after his release? 15. As a parent/guardian, what can you do to help your child to reintegrate in to the community? 16. Do you have any other ideas on how to end the problem of juveniles coming into conflict with law? 107 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Appendix E: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR JUVENILES WHO ARE NOT IN THE CRRECENT REINTGRATION PROGRAMME. A. Socio-demographic data 1. Sex 2. Age 3. level of education 4. Ethnicity 5. Religious affiliation 6. Where do you come from? 7. Where do you stay? (before and after incarceration) 8. Do you live with your parent? If no, who do you live with? 9. What’s your parent/guardian’s Occupation? B. Life experiences 10. What brought you into contact with the law? a. How old where you when you committed that offense? b. Why did you commit that offense? c. What was the feeling when you were arrested? 11. How long did you stay in the correctional facility? a. Can you tell us about some of your experiences in the correctional facility? 12. From your experience in the correctional institution, will you say you have been transformed? Why? C. Skills and training programmes in correctional centre. 13. What type of training did you go through in the correctional centre? 14. Did you learn anything new from this training? If yes, 108 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh a. What skill did you acquire and how will it help you in the larger society? 15. Does everyone automatically qualify to partake in this training? a. If no, why? b. If yes, can you opt out? 16. Were you taken through any treatment programme? a. If yes, what kind of treatment programmes were you taken through? D. Mechanisms put in place in the correctional centre to aid reintegration 17. What was the feeling like when your time for release was approaching? 18. How did the correctional institution prepare you for your release? 19. Were you taking through any programme to help in your re-entry into the society? a. If yes, what can you say about this programme? E. Role of the family and friends in reintegration 20. Did any of your parent (guardian) or friends show up during your arrest, court proceeding, your stay in the correctional institution and during your release? a. If no, Why? b. How frequent did your parent/guardian visit you during your stay in the correctional institution? 21. How did your family and friends receive your after release? 22. How is life after you were released? 23. What do you do for a living? 24. Did you get anyone or an NGO to support you after release? 25. Have you heard of CRRECENT? 109 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Appendix 2 Thematic Matrix Created for Data Analysis LIFE EXPERIENCES BEFORE DENTENTION WITHIN DENTENTION AFTER DETENTION REP 1 (CR) Coming from dysfunctional Using skills learnt at home, family with poor SCC to make a living, socio-economic status, Not using the skills, relative not devoted in they learnt at SCC, taking care of children Going back school, when parents are not going back to their around, children raising deviant ways themselves and trying to survive, coming from normal home with both parent present, Good socio-economic background, truant, school dropout, not listen to advice REP 2 (PO) School dropouts, Juveniles going through Juveniles go back to Living on the street, vocational training, school with the help of No family to support them, Writing proficiency NGO’s and FBO, Staying with families who exams at the end of some Others use the skills don’t take interest in what vocation, they learnt when they the child does, Acquiring skills from the are released, trade they learnt, Some juveniles join the Juveniles going to school service, within SCC and other Others graduate into going to school outside adult crimes SCC, Going to school outside without escort, People coming to SCC to share their experience with the juveniles, Educated on sexual reproduction, hunger management, character studies, Go through medical examination, Others are circumcised REP 3 (P/G) Growing up in Officers taken care of Juveniles going back to irresponsible homes, juvenile when they were school with the help of Falling into bad company, in the SCC. CRRECENT, Peer pressure, 110 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Guardian not always Juveniles using the available to keep a close skills they learnt at watch on children SCC make a living, Others not using the skills they acquire, Juveniles having issues with accommodation, Juveniles still not settles on what they want to do. REP 4 (J/C) Juvenile living either with Not have your own will, Staying with parent grandparents, both parents, Be guided by rules and and relatives, staying alone, living with regulations, someone who is not a People calling me jail relative, living home to stay Obeying the rules man, but they stopped, alone, Friends saw going to Food is different, SCC as normal, Father not in good terms People who knew were with child, We have place they kept not calling me names, those who commit offense people didn’t know Engaged in internet fraud, within SCC, that I went to SCC, Friends coming over to my place, Encounter people who I went back to school are stubborn, with the help of Friends and I seeing learning from stubborn CRRECENT girlfriend as normal thing, juveniles, girls interested in me, I couldn’t complete Peer influence, Learning a vocation, SHS due to lack of funds, Juvenile dropout of school, Going outside SCC alone truant, others had buy things, I am learning a trade completed JHS and SHS, with the help of others were still in JHS, Counselling by NGOs CRRECENT, AND FBOs Juveniles living on the I am learning a trade street, Going to school inside from my father and outside SCC, Knew I wouldn’t continue Doing course to further my education after JHS The classes inside was my education into the because there was no one to good, classes came to a university, help, halt when some juveniles fight in school, I am working and You can’t be truant, using the skill I learnt Teachers are sometimes alongside, not available, My family embraced me Learning that we can Didn’t go back to my make it in life when old neighbourhood, for 111 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh we are released and fear of the complaint teaching us the things we accusing me again, do that are against the law Went back to my Officers given money to neighbourhood juvenile when he was discharged. Wasn’t roaming Family came to visit, around with friends like how I use to, Going through a welcome Financial constraint drill preventing a juvenile from to work You have a bed to yourselves, I need tools to practice what I have learnt, You are not forced to learn a vocation or go to I am able to speak well school, when talking to elders, Not able to learn in the Staying with friends, dormitories, Things became worse Acknowledge juveniles when I came out, who show good behaviour, Wasn’t transformed when I was released, but CRRECENT program transformed me, Am a pastor now REP 5 (J/ WC) completed JHS, completed Not a good place to be, Have completed SHS, SHS, Freedom taken away from you Director check up on living with father and step- me when I was I mother, living with school, grandparent, There is no transformation, Living on the street, father wasn’t really taken living alone, care of juvenile, Transformation from bad to worse, Work as a tailor in step-mother not taken care Koforidua, trying to of juvenile, Vocation doesn’t get a job, transform, peer group Didn’t learn anything LIC sponsored my new, education, Trade is available to those who humble themselves, Family didn’t receive me with joy, family received me well, 112 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh There is counselling and visitation Family supports me in everything, Good relationship with officers Friends were excited to FBOs and NGOs come see me, around to fellowship and counsel us, Involved in church activities, Leader of an observation Devote my life and block, everything to Christ, Was transformed, Step-mother didn’t Went to SHS outside SCC want me in the house, but dropped out and Eating from left-overs, joined tailoring department, NGO didn’t want juvenile coming there, Helping colleagues to come out of drug NGO bought sowing addiction machine for juvenile, Being an intermediary Father not ready to between officers and help juvenile, inmate, Church helping Was given sowing juvenile, machine when I was released Father sold sowing machine, People talking about me, Disappointment from NGO’s 113 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh EXPERIENCES OF JUVENILES Police experience Court experience REP 1 (CR) REP 2 (PO) REP 3 (P/G) Was taken to the police, spent Understood the court 2days at the police cells proceedings, before taken to court, He spent about a month in Spent 3dyays at the police Tamale main prison, station before taken to court, Was given a legal aid, The police arrest him, Human right lawyer came in We took him to the police the day his sentence was station, passed, Had a personal lawyer, Went to court for about a year, he remanded to the Osu remand home, Didn’t have a lawyer, REP 4 (JU) School security arrested me, Went to court for about No family member showed 2weeks, up at the police station, Was remanded to the Osu My family took me to the remand home for a month, police station, Went to court for about a Stay for about a week in the year, cell, My family with me through The police arrested me, the court proceedings, Stay there for 3days, Went to court about 7month, Was sentence to 1 week at Tamale prison, Was remanded to a remand home for 8 months, 114 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CRIME JUVENILES COMMITTED AND REASONS FOR COMMITING THAT CRIME CRIMES COMMITTED REASONS REP 1: (CR) Petty stealing, rape, defilement, unlawful Socio-economic difficulties, entry, Murder, armed robbery, Parental irresponsibility, Dysfunctional homes, Bad company REP 2: (PO) Petty stealing, defilement, unlawful Financial problems, lack of social entry, assault, murder, rape, robbery, support, homeless, causing harm, REP 3: (P/G) Defilement, stealing, Peer pressure, spiritual, the child’s behaviour, absence of a guardian to check them, stubborn child, greed, financial issues REP 4: (JU) Assault, attempted to steal, defilement, Misunderstanding between boys, hunger, stealing computer, helping a friend, accused wrongly, need it for internet fraud, helped a friend, don’t know why I did it, peer pressure. SKILLS AND TRAINING PROGRAMS Education/ vocation Does everyone Treatment Effectiveness qualify programmes REP 1 (CR) Going back to SHS, technical school, informal apprenticeship, other don’t use skills, REP 2 (PO) Basic Education in All qualifies but No treatment Working with skills SCC, SHS outside some resist, program in SCC, acquired, SCC, carpentry, No drug addiction Employed in other metal works treatment within areas, fabrications, SCC, Joining the service, tailoring, electrical Taken to hospitals graduate into adult works, beads outside SCC, crime, making, welding, Social continue their volcanizing, shoe psychological education to higher making, auto Counselling, level, mechanics and auto Religious sections others don’t use the electricals with juveniles, skills, Mentors, Hunger management program, REP 3 (P/G) Electricals, Using the vocation/skill learnt to get a job, 115 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh Others don’t use it, Continue their education REP 4 (JU) Ceramics, You must be We go through I was transformed, schooling inside 6month old in SCC, Counselling, I wasn’t transformed, SCC, You decide to go to advice from FBO, Transformation working at the store, school or be in a drug addict stuff by depends on the general electricals, vocation, PPAG, individual, Tailoring, auto Everyone qualifies, I didn’t use the skill I electricals, You must a year learnt, old, I continued my education, I Learnt something new, Good way of teaching helped me, I learnt a new vocation after release, Inside SCC when juveniles do something wrong in school we don’t go to school for weeks, PRE-RELEASE AND POST-RELEASE REINTEGRATION PROGRAMS BY SENIOR CORRECTIONAL CENTRE. Pre-release Post-release reintegration Improvement in reintegration reintegration REP 1 CR) Discharge board, No systematic program in Social welfare doing it part No parole, place in the country that takes of reintegration, care of after care and reintegration of discharge juveniles. (REP 2 (PO) Discharge board, Our services end when they Reviving social welfare Discharge program, are discharged, department, Farewell program, Ideally, we don’t do follow Public education against No parole, ups, stigma, discrimination, Some officers do follow ups, prejudice and perception, Social welfare not doing Police to be sensitize in reintegration due to lack of terms of juvenile arrest, funds, Providing resources, NGOs doing follow up and Follow ups, aftercare, 116 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh REP 3 (P/G) The correctional institution Given seed capital, doesn’t do follow ups, An officer checks up on him, There is nothing like reintegrating juveniles by government, Social welfare doesn’t follow up, REP 4 (JU) No preparation before Officer checks up on me, release, No parole, They give some tools, They gave me sowing machine Officer advise you, Officers gave me money, FAMILY’S ROLE IN JUVENILE REINTEGRATION What has been done What need to be done REP 1 (CR) Family support, Family support REP 2 (PO) visit juveniles in SCC, family Providing social support, support when discharged, family support when the juvenile is discharged, REP 3 (P/G) Family support Always be available for the Advise the child, child, Keeping the child in line, Both parent working together Neighbours don’t call him to raise the child, names, Provide for the child, Neighbours live well with Teach them the word of God, him, Monitor him, advise him, Good relationship with the Not rejecting the child, child, REP 4 (JU) Family rejection, Family visit juveniles in detention, Family received me well, Family didn’t receive me well, Friends received me well, 117 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh CRRECENT CONTRIBUTION TO REINTEGRATION Pre-release Post-release Want can be added REP 1 (CR) We take part in Case by case reintegration We are introducing rehabilitation, package, treatment and behavior role models to talk to Getting family member ready to change treatment them, support juvenile, Collaborating with social send food items, Psycho-social counselling, welfare to help, we advise them, Calling, given advise and encouragement, Counselling parent, Supporting juveniles in school and apprenticeship, Monitoring them, Follow up, Paying personal visit, Home coming, role models to talk to them, REP 2 (PO) Social psychological Providing support for juveniles, Do follow ups, counselling and Provide seed money and tools, religious services, They follow up, Provide food, medication, educational materials etc. REP 3 (P/G) They call to check up on him, They help him to continue SHS, They are helping him learn a trade, They involve us in taking decision, REP 4 (J/C) Met CRRECENT They counsel us, Keep doing what they do, inside SCC, they advise us, Take juveniles who are in They counsel and call to check up on you, CRRECENT and are advise us, provide your needs, doing well to SCC to they care about us, advise those inside, call you to come around, Keep supporting us pay school fees, financial, put me into an apprenticeship job, They shouldn’t judge they invite people to come and juveniles base on what talk to us, pass juveniles did, 118 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh REP 5 (J/WC) They come to advice Know of NGOs helping people, and counsel us They took my details but never heard from them, Choose to go with my dad’s help instead of the NGO, 119 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 120 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 121