Briefing from ROAPE Volume 35 Number 118
Prison Privatisation in the African Context

The use of prison as a direct punishment of the court is a relatively modern phenomenon. It began in the 17th and 18th century, principally in Western Europe and North America, and over the succeeding centuries its use has spread to virtually every country in the world. In Africa prior to colonial times there was no indigenous concept of imprisonment as a form of punishment. The idea of taking substantial numbers of predominantly young men, who would otherwise be economically and socially active, locking them behind high walls and making them and their dependants a burden on the rest of society made no economic or cultural sense. As elsewhere in the world the first prisons were built as a tool for the colonial powers to subdue the local populace. Today one can still visit some African towns and see prisons which reflect their French colonial past, while in a number of countries in West and East Africa many prisons are built on a common British model. One suspects that the original construction plan might still be found somewhere in the Public Records Office in Kew near London.