The cross-cutting psychosocial and systemic barriers to holistic rehabilitation, including educational re-engagement, of incarcerated adolescents: Realities in and perspectives from Africa

Olayinka Atilola, Gbonjubola Abiri, Eniola Adebanjo and Bolanle Ola

International Journal of Educational Development, 2021, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: The present study identifies the potential barriers to holistic rehabilitation, including educational re-engagement, of justice-involved youth in Africa. This was done using quantitative data on the educational and other psychosocial problems presented by a cohort of justice-involved youth and qualitative data on the realities on ground in the correctional school within a youth correctional facility in Lagos, Nigeria, as an illustrative example. Findings showed a lot of cross-cutting psycho-social and systemic barriers to holistic psycho-social rehabilitation of justice-involved adolescents. These include pre-existing psychosocial problems such as, educational disengagement prior to incarceration, high prevalence rates of untreated intercurrent behavioral disorders such as conduct disorders and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder among detained youth, and lack of community- or school-based pre-emptive interventions for school-related indicators of delinquency within the juvenile justice system. Others are lack of non-incarcerating correctional system with focus on psychosocial and educational rehabilitation, poor standard of human/ infrastructural resource-capacity within the facilities, and low level of school-engagement occasioned by poor mental and behavioral health among those enrolled in correctional schools. Context-appropriate pre-emptive and responsive strategies to address cross-cutting psycho-social and rehabilitative needs of justice-involved youth were discussed.

Keywords: Justice-involved youth; Rehabilitation; Educational re-engagement; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:81:y:2021:i:c:s0738059320304946

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102335

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