Research on prison officers’ understanding and compliance with the international human rights instruments for the protection of prisoners’ rights and guidelines for justice administration remains scanty. Drawing on data from scenario-based interviews of 24 selected prison officers in the four largest prison facilities in Ghana, this article seeks to explore how Ghana prison officers understand and practice these instruments and guidelines that protect the rights of prisoners. Applying content analysis, the findings reveals that the overwhelming majority of officer participants in this study did not have adequate intellectual and practical understanding of these relevant instruments and guidelines.
BartelsL.BolandJ. (2016). Human rights and prison: A case study from the Australian capital territory. In FishwickE.MarmoM.WeberL. (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of criminology and human rights (pp. 556–567). Routledge.
3.
BonabomI. (2014). Health and human rights in Ghana: The political and economic aspects of health care. Common Ground Publishing.
CoyleA. (2002). Managing prisons in a time of change. International Centre for Prison Studies.
6.
CoyleA. (2009). Human rights approach to prison management (2nd ed.). International Centre for Prison Studies.
7.
Ghana Prisons Service (2013). Annual report. Ghana Prison Service.
8.
GiffardC. (2002). International human rights law applicable to prisoners. In BrownD.Wilkie M. (Eds.), Prisoners as citizens: Human rights in Australian prisons (pp. 177–195). Federation Press.
9.
MurdochJ.JirickaV. (2016). Combating ill-treatment in prison. Council of Europe.
10.
HosifiC.HosifiM.MagoS. (2014). Critiquing interviewing as a data collection method. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(16), 60–64. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n16p60
11.
NaylorB. (2014). Human rights and respect in prisons: The prisoners’ perspective. Law in Context, 31(41), 84–124.
12.
NaylorB. (2015). Researching human rights in prisons. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 4(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.v4i1.209
13.
NaylorB.DebeljakJ.MackayA. (Eds.). (2014). Human rights in closed environments. Special issue, law in context (Vol. 31, pp. 201–204). Federation Press.
14.
NiyizurugeroJ.LessènP. (2008). Robben Island guidelines for the prohibition and prevention of torture in Africa. Association for the Prevention of Torture.
RouhiE.DezakiL. R.KarvehM. J. (2017). Protection of prisoner’s human rights in prisons through the guidelines of rule of law. Journal of Politics and Law, 10(1), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v10n1p71
18.
SarkinJ. (2008). Prison in Africa: An evaluation from a human rights perspective. Sur-International Journal on Human Rights, 4(9), 22–51.
19.
Shawbell Consulting (2016). Final training needs assessment report vol II. Ghana Prisons Service.
20.
SmithR. K. M. (2007). Textbook on international human rights (3rd ed). Oxford University Press.
TibbittsF. (2002). Understanding what we do: Emerging models for human rights education. International Review of Education, 48(3-4), 531–549.
23.
TibbittsF. (2017). Evolution of human rights education models. In BajajM. (Ed.), Human rights education: Theory, research, praxis (pp. 69–95). University of Pennsylvania Press.
24.
Tremblay-QuennevilleA. M. (2019). Exploring human rights in the police education. An Icelandic case study. Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland School of Education.
25.
UNHRC (1992). General comment No. 21: Article 10 (humane treatment of persons deprived of their liberty). United Nations.
26.
United Nations (2005). Human rights and prisons: Manual on human rights training for prison officials. United Nations.
27.
United Nations (2011). United Nations declaration on human rights education and training. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/715039?ln=en
28.
United Nations Economic and Social Council (1957). The UN standard Minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. United Nations.
