The informal prison economy in Ghana: patterns, exchanges, and institutional contradictions

Abstract

This study aims to document, describe, and examine how the informal prison economy is mediated. It is argued that, in part, it is the prison’s internal micro bureaucratic capitalism that gives rise to its informal economy. The data discussion draws on ethnographic observation, interviews with inmates, ex-convicts, and prison officers. The paper also makes use of newspapers and internet-based news articles on prisons in Ghana. The data was analysed based on themes and patterns. The analysed data showed that the informal prison economy was antithetical yet symbiotic with the formal bureaucracy. And that the illicit economy was a product of a poorly managed system that enabled ordinary staff members to engage in corrupt practices without fear of negative sanctions. The role of the informal prison economy in the lives of inmates was enormous—ranging from family sustenance, de-facto health insurance, hiring of legal services to say the least. The paper concludes that the informal economy has become habituated and has taken on a life of its own; to the extent that it has become resistant to administrative control.

Keywords

• formal economy
• informal economy
• contraband
• institutional contradictions
• prison