S06.E02 - Getting it Right - Unchained! Ghana’s Prison and Justice System

Released exactly one month after Prison Awareness Day, this episode takes you inside Ghana’s criminal justice system, where justice delayed often means justice denied.
Host Masechaba Mdaka journeys through Accra, uncovering the lived realities behind statistics: people held on remand for years without trial, families torn apart by incarceration, and prisoners who find themselves caught in a system that moves painfully slowly. You’ll hear from former inmates, families of the incarcerated, and advocates like the POS Foundation, who are pioneering prison reform through initiatives such as the “Justice for All” programme and in-prison paralegal training.
We also spotlight Ghana’s historic decision to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes, making it part of a growing wave across Africa, and the human rights defenders who made this possible, including Hon. Francis-Xavier Sosu and Amnesty International Ghana’s Genevieve Partington.
This episode confronts difficult questions: How do we balance crime control with due process? Can prisons truly rehabilitate? And what happens to dignity and justice when systems fail? FNF Africa