Doing Time: Britain's Ageing Prison Population

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 inmates.

- Anna Walker

I 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 upon incarceration] and difficulty adapting upon release. A University of Oxford study found that more than 80 per cent of male prisoners aged 60 plus suffered a chronic illness or disability. Although there are some palliative care suites across Britain, there aren't nearly enough to meet demand.