Conjugal rights for prisoners: A systematic review of the literature and advocacy for implementation in Ghanaian prisons

David Naya Zuure

doi:10.51867/ajernet.7.1.127

Autores

David Naya Zuure University of Education, Ghana https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3304-7001

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.1.127

Palavras-chave:

Conjugal Rights, Ghanaian Prisons, Human Rights, Prisoners, Rehabilitation, Systematic Review

Resumo

In this paper, I undertake a systematic review of global literature on conjugal rights for prisoners to examine their implications for human rights, rehabilitation, health, recidivism, and implementation challenges, with a focus on advocating for their introduction in Ghanaian prisons. This work was guided by the Human Rights and Dignity Theory and the Postcolonial Penal Theory. Searches were conducted in databases including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, African Journals Online (AJOL), Sage Journals, Taylor & Francis, and grey literature from organizations like Amnesty International and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Peer-reviewed articles, reports, and books published in English from 1960 to 2024 were included if they addressed conjugal rights in prisons, with no restrictions on study design. Exclusion criteria included non-English sources and irrelevant topics. Data were extracted on study characteristics, findings, and quality. Thematic synthesis was used, with quantitative pooling where possible (e.g., effect sizes for recidivism). Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool for quantitative studies and CASP for qualitative ones. From 147 records screened, 58 studies were included. Conjugal rights were associated with improved human rights (e.g., reduced dehumanization in 12 studies), rehabilitation (e.g., lower disciplinary infractions in meta-analyses), health (e.g., reduced depression in 8 studies), and recidivism reduction (e.g., 10-15% lower reoffending in longitudinal data). Challenges included security risks and cultural stigma, with solutions like pilot programs proposed. While countries like the United States of America and South Africa have shown commitment to the implementation of conjugal rights for prisoners and derived benefits from it, many African countries, including Ghana, significantly lag behind. Due to the many benefits of conjugal rights shown by literature. The study strongly advocates for their introduction, with the argument that they are necessary for ethical incarceration. I recommend that the introduction take a piloting approach to offer an opportunity to identify implementation challenges before large-scale introduction.

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