Rethinking Ghana’s prisons: ‘Think Prisons 360 Degrees’ initiative
In many parts of the world, prisons are often associated with negativity, such as punishment, confinement, criminality and hardship.
However, behind the high walls and secured gates lies an establishment with the potential to ensure public safety, rehabilitate and transform lives, develop skills and contribute to national development.
The new strategic direction of the Ghana Prisons Service, Think Prisons 360 Degrees, invites us to reconsider our perception of the country’s penal establishments and their potential benefits to humanity.
This initiative aligns with the renowned Project Efiase and the Ghana Prisons Service 10-Year Strategic Plan (2015–2025). Like the earlier prison reform, Think Prisons 360 Degrees aims to reposition the Service as a more transformative, humane and development-oriented organisation within Ghana’s criminal justice system.
This concept stemmed from the exemplary leadership of the Director-General of Prisons, Mrs Patience Baffoe-Bonnie (Esq.). Grounded in five key thematic pillars, the project focuses on improving the welfare of prison staff and inmates, promoting agricultural mechanisation, fostering industrial activity, supporting prison-based enterprises and creating strategic partnerships that benefit both prisons and society at large.
Empirical studies have shown that prisons worldwide continue to face long-standing challenges, particularly in developing countries (Dissel, 2007; Raboloko & Maripe, 2019; Taye, 2020).
Issues such as inmate overcrowding, deteriorating infrastructure, poor conditions of service for staff, weak rehabilitation and reintegration programmes, human rights concerns and chronic funding constraints persist.
Despite these hurdles, a few African countries have taken proactive measures to transform their prison systems.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, Rwanda has prioritised rehabilitation and skills development in its post-genocide prison reform agenda, while Namibia has invested significantly in modern rehabilitation programmes.
Additionally, the Republic of South Africa and Kenya continue to pilot initiatives focused on corrections rather than retribution.
Notably, Nigeria and Ghana are demonstrating potential through vocational and educational programmes designed to reform offenders and support their reintegration into society.
Organisational visibility
For many years, the Ghana Prisons Service operated primarily as a closed system.
Simply put, public access to prison facilities was limited, and not much was known about the Service beyond its core mandate of ensuring safe custody.
During that time, the Service followed a concept that organisational communication scholars (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) describe as a container metaphor.
According to this concept, organisations simply hold communication within a structure (container) rather than being shaped and defined by it.
In 2013, the Service experienced a paradigm shift under the historic leadership of the first female Director-General of Prisons, Madam Matilda Baffour Awuah.
As a result, the Ghana Prisons Service began to attract significant media attention.
Today, this shift continues unabated through the ongoing Think Prisons 360 Degrees initiative, alongside a stronger social media presence, the innovative prison online TV platform and advanced plans to establish a traditional TV station to further engage and educate the public.
Recent organisational communication scholarship reminds us that organisations are built through communicative processes.
In this context, the Ghana Prisons Service is making significant progress by promoting open internal communication, public exhibitions and fairs, sensitisation and awareness campaigns, public education in senior high schools and sustained media engagement.
These efforts are strategic and crucial for changing misconceptions about prisons as mere warehouses for criminals and, instead, presenting them as essential institutions with the capacity to reform, rehabilitate, and facilitate reintegration.
Rebranding agenda
The call to rebrand the Ghana Prisons Service is not new.
For over a decade, successive prison administrations have explored the possibility of renaming the institution to align with global shifts from punishment toward rehabilitation and corrections.
While rebranding may signal progress, it cannot stand alone.
A true correctional system requires the right resources, logistics, training and infrastructure to support reform-oriented work.
Rebranding, in this sense, goes beyond just changing a name or logo and includes broader changes like mission, vision and values (Amadi, 2023).
It is a strategic process that reshapes how an organisation sees itself and how the public sees it.
Unfortunately, both the Service and its staff often face what sociologist Erving Goffman (1963) described as courtesy stigma – the negative judgments placed on individuals simply because of their association with prisons or prisoners.
This stigma not only affects incarcerated persons but also prison officers who work closely with inmates throughout their incarceration.
A practical example can be found in the Singapore Prison Service.
Rather than focusing solely on a name change, it undertook a comprehensive organisational restructuring.
Prison officers were rebranded from “custodians of prisoners” to “Captains of Lives,” reflecting their role as guides in the rehabilitation journey.
This change was supported by clear principles centred on rehabilitation, renewal and reintegration.
The result was not just an improved public image but also a significant reduction in the recidivism rate from 44.4 per cent to 26.5 per cent.
The key lesson for Ghana is clear: rebranding alone is not the solution.
What truly matters is a shift in practice, from retribution to reform, rehabilitation and corrections.
Any future move to rename the Ghana Prisons Service must align with visible changes in operations, adequate tools, improved facilities and conditions of service, as well as rehabilitation outcomes, to carry out its work effectively.
Only then can the name reflect the true character and purpose of a modern correctional institution.
Support for prison reform
Recently, the government increased the daily feeding fee for inmates from GH¢1.80 to GH¢5.00 per person.
This adjustment, coming after about fifteen years without review, is a step in the right direction and deserves commendation.
Going forward, there is hope that the feeding rate will be reviewed regularly to reflect rising costs of living and inflation, ensuring that inmates receive meals that meet basic nutritional standards.
Beyond inmate feeding, the Ghana Prisons Service continues to face serious challenges with logistics and resources that the government alone cannot address.
The Church of Pentecost deserves special commendation for funding the construction of three correctional facilities, which were handed over to the Prisons Service to support rehabilitation efforts.
They include the Ejura Camp Prison (Ashanti Region), Nsawam Camp Prison (Eastern Region) and recently the Damongo Camp Prison (Savannah Region).
Prisons ultimately serve the good of society by enhancing public safety.
For this reason, corporate organisations, philanthropists, religious bodies, non-governmental organisations, development partners and well-meaning Ghanaians must see prison reform as a shared responsibility.
Supporting the ongoing Think Prisons 360 Degrees means investing in safer communities and better futures.
When incarcerated people are well supported, they return to society as reformed and productive citizens, rather than as individuals pushed back into cycles of hardship and reoffending. As the popular saying goes, “The prison is everybody’s second potential home.”
Life’s uncertainties and changing circumstances can lead anyone there.
For that reason, issues of prison reform and the criminal justice system should never be ignored.
The writer is a Senior Prison Officer &
PhD Student at Ohio University,
School of Communication Studies.
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