Africa has recorded the second-highest rate of pre-trial detention among world regions, according to a new United Nations report, which found that more than a third of the continent’s prison population is being held without having been convicted or sentenced.
The report, Prison Matters 2026, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), found that unsentenced detainees made up 34 per cent of Africa’s prison population in 2024, behind only Oceania, where the figure stood at 39 per cent, and above the global average of 31 per cent.
Globally, the report estimates that around 3.6 million people were held in pre-trial detention in 2024, up from roughly 3.3 million a decade earlier, even though the overall proportion of unsentenced prisoners worldwide has remained relatively stable.
Within Africa, the report identifies stark subregional disparities. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded one of the highest proportions of unsentenced prisoners globally, while the report separately flags Southern Asia as the world’s most acute case, where “almost two thirds of detainees (62 per cent) are held unsentenced”, a figure the report says has worsened over the past decade.
The report also identifies a gender dimension to pre-trial detention that disproportionately affects African women.
“Although there is no significant global gender gap in unsentenced detention rates, certain regions, such as Africa, the Americas and Oceania, exhibit higher percentages of women in pre-trial detention,” the report states, adding that Africa recorded a gender gap of “10 percentage points” between male and female unsentenced detention rates in 2024.
The UN report warns that excessive reliance on pre-trial detention undermines the presumption of innocence and can heighten the risk of coercion, particularly for defendants who are poor or lack access to legal representation.
It further notes that pre-trial detainees frequently face worse conditions than convicted prisoners, despite their presumed innocence, stating that “the prison regime and conditions in pre-trial detention are often found to be worse or more restrictive than those applicable to sentenced prisoners.”
The report cites Kenya as an example of a country addressing the problem through community-based legal interventions, highlighting the role of prisoner paralegals, individuals trained by civil society legal organisations, in securing bail reductions and case reviews for pre-trial detainees.
It notes that as of 2024, Kenya’s own prison population included 22,438 “unconvicted detainees,” representing 38 per cent of its total prison population of 59,013.
The findings draw on responses to the UN Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS), supplemented by data from the World Prison Brief and figures reviewed by UN member states.
(SaharaReporters)