The Socioeconomic Impact of Pretrial Detention in Sierra Leone

Around the world, excessive pretrial detention prods people toward poverty. It pushes working class people toward unemployment, uncertainty, and homelessness. It tips those on the edge of privation into poverty and plunges the already poor into even worse destitution. It limits the development of whole communities, wastes human potential, and misdirects State resources.

For the ďŹ rst time, the costs of excessive pretrial detention in Sierra Leone have been tallied, and the results are staggering: lost employment, hunger, debt, divorce, and other outcomes. Based on interviews with scores of pretrial detainees and their families, this report documents in gritty detail the disastrous effects of excessive pretrial detention. The Socioeconomic Impact of Pretrial Detention in Sierra Leone combines statistics, data analysis, and ďŹ rst-hand accounts to show precisely how damaging excessive pretrial detention is – and who pays the costs.