The Socioeconomic Impact of Pretrial Detention in Ghana

In 2011, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in Ghana, in collaboration with the Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice and UNDP, measured the socioeconomic costs of excessive pretrial detention in Ghana.

They randomly surveyed 45 adult pretrial detainees in Kumasi prison, located in Ghana’s second largest city, 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.