This week my article “Pursuing the Horizon of Abolition,” was published in the International Journal of Crime, Social Justice and Democracy. Within, I argue that African countries are not just places afflicted by the global incarceration imperative, they may also be sites from which to chant it down.
It is serendipity that this article was released just a few days before Ghana’s 62nd anniversary; its subject is the unfinished business of national independence in Ghana — specifically where prison reform and penal abolition fit into this ongoing project of African freedom.
This article is inspired by the amazing work being done by award-winning Ghanaian journalist Seth Kwame Boateng of JoyFM—- specifically two powerful documentaries about Ghana’ prison overcrowding crisis. The links to Locked and Forgotten (2015) and Left to Rot (2016) are posted below: please take the time to watch, follow Seth Kwame Boateng, and support his ongoing work.
Abena Ampofoa Asare 