The Socioeconomic Impact of Pretrial Detention in Sierra Leone

In 2011, two Sierra Leonean nongovernmental organizations—Prison Watch Sierra Leone and Timap for Justice, in collaboration with the Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice and UNDP—measured the socioeconomic costs of excessive pretrial detention in Sierra Leone.

They randomly surveyed 128 adult pretrial detainees, in three prisons, one in the capital Freetown, and two in the provinces, seeking information on how their detention affected their socioeconomic position. The results, contained in this report, quantify the pernicious and wide-ranging effects of excessive pretrial detention and show how severely pretrial detention damages the socioeconomic development of detainees, their families, and communities