Carceral mobilities, governance and social networks: conceptualizing transferred prisoners’ experiences in Ghana

This study examines the transfer experiences of prisoners and how they affect prison governance, the prison economy, and the wider social relations of the prison system in Ghana, thereby contributing to critical debates in carceral geography. Despite increasing attention to prisons as a significant area of empirical investigation within carceral geography, there is a dearth of research on the Global South, particularly in Ghana. I advance three claims, particularly from the Global South perspective about carceral mobility: First, I demonstrate the interconnectedness between mobility and confinement, which are often studied separately. Second, the findings reveal the chaotic and unsettling nature of prisoner transfer in Ghana while also recognising the diversity of experiences and challenges among prisoners. Third, as the first empirical research into prisoner transfer in Ghana, this study contributes new knowledge about the rationales, experiences, and impacts of prisoner transfer in Ghana, considering its implications related to mobility (including forced migration), networks, and power dynamics. Employing a mixed-methods approach, I administered questionnaires to 164 transferred prisoners and conducted 48 semi-structured interviews with key informants in Ghana. Unlike previous studies that described prisoner transfer as a punitive measure, this thesis unveils the pivotal role transfer plays as a temporary solution to the structural challenges of a resource-constrained prison system in Ghana. The transfer process and family members’ engagement with prisoners’ post-transfer are characterised by interrelated power dynamics, as seen in the procedural discretion exercised by prison officers, in the selection and transportation of prisoners, and during visitations. Furthermore, by focusing on the transfer experience of prisoners, I draw attention to what I characterise as a pervasive sense of ‘blurriness’ across different spaces of the prisons in my study. In my usage, ‘blurriness’ signals embedded ambiguities, which are driven by an individual’s distinctive experiences of incarceration and the spillages within the prison’s economy (i.e., the formal and informal exchange of goods among prisoners). This sheds light on the need to reconsider some of the consequences of incarceration and transfer, and the intricate workings of the internal micro-capitalism of the prison economy. Additionally, the findings contextualise the agency of individual prisoners, which is intertwined with the collective suffering experienced during incarceration and transfer while contributing to the complexities of the formal and informal economies of prisons. Based on these findings, a series of recommendations are identified, these include the development of a comprehensive transfer policy, which must be accompanied by a Digital Data Management Plan (DDMP) to guide the practises and management of prisoner transfer in Ghana. The structural challenges of the Ghana Prisons Service require a national dialogue and government commitment to allocate funds to revamp the dilapidated conditions of the prisons and ensure the provision of basic necessities for prisoners. Logistical support is also needed to minimise the exercise of discretion by prison officers during transfers.