Risk Assessment in African Prisons: The Case of Ghana

• In Event: Prison Standards, Rules, and Practices

Abstract

Traditionally, prisons have relied on criminal history and the magnitude of the offenses persons in custody [PIC] are serving terms on to classify and assess risk to others, future crimes, and escape. Prisons in Africa have operated within this paradigm with a three-security-level regime (maximum-security, medium-security, and minimum-security). Over the past four decades, continental Europe and North America have introduced innovative-risk-assessment tools to meet the dynamic-criminogenic needs of PIC. Currently, there are designated risk-assessment tools for violence in prisons and recidivism post-prison. To date, modern risk-assessment tools to aid the understanding of the criminogenic needs of PIC are underdeveloped in most African prisons. Our study discusses the current risk-assessment regime in African prisons focusing on Ghana. We examine the strengths and challenges of risk-assessment protocols in African prisons. Further, we present the challenges accounting for the over-reliance on the traditional classification of PIC as the sole risk-assessment regime in many of the region’s prisons, which has failed to meet current global practice and the dynamic-criminogenic needs of PIC. A list of global risk-assessment tools is discussed, and an analysis of how they can be adapted to meet the cultural and resource needs of the region is performed.

Authors

• Frank Darkwa Baffour, The University of Newcastle

• Kofi E. Boakye, University of Leicester

• Thomas D. Akoensi, University of Kent, UK