As the number of prisoners aged 60 plus
continues to multiply, Anna Walker investigates
whether Britain's prisons are ready to cope
with the reality of our ageing inmatesI
never realised until I came into
prison what the term ‘doing
time’ meant... The world I used
to know has gone and my only view
of the world is what I see on TV or
read in papers. All I have are fading
memories... I don’t know if any of
my relatives are alive and I have no
friends to visit me... I increasingly feel
I am slowly dying away... ‘dead man
walking’, as the saying goes.” *
Inmates aged 60 plus are the fastest
growing group in Britain’s prisons. As
of December 2017, more than 13,500
people aged 50 plus were incarcerated,
making up 16 per cent of the entire
prison population. That number has
trebled in the past 20 years. By 2020,it's expected to rise to 15,000. The
reason for this ageing population is
a combination of tougher sentences
and the rise in convictions of historic
sex offences. The latter means that
many are inside for the first time,
and struggling with the physical
disadvantages that accompany old age.
What's considered “old age” in prison
varies significantly from wider society
because any period of incarceration
adds around ten years to the physical
age of a prisoner.
The obstacles facing this
generation of inmates include: mobility,
incontinence, menopause, isolation,
dementia, bullying, poverty [state
pension is no longer paid uponBRITAIN'S AGEING
PRISON POPULATION
DOING TIME:
“
*Quote from “Doing Time” a briefing from the Prison Reform Trust74 • AUGUST 2019