SCOTLAND may have increased the minimum age of criminal responsibility from eight to 12, bringing the country into line with UN standards, but it is convicted prisoners at the other end of the age spectrum who are now causing concern. Despite a slight fall in the overall population, Scotland’s prisons are currently home to increasing numbers of older male inmates. In 2010/11, there were 603 who were aged 50 and over; today, there are 993. In the 65-and-over bracket, there are 152 prisoners as opposed to 88 in 2010/11.

As Kenny MacAskill, the former Justice Secretary, says today, many of these older men are doing time for crimes of historic sexual abuse. Given the frightening scale of the latest chapter in this continuing scandal, it seems likely that prisons will need to cater for new prisoners in the 50-plus age range.

Mr MacAskill also points to a small but insistent problem: the needs of geriatric prisoners. Officers, he says, have not been trained to deal with them. The facilities are not suited, either. Given that many are in for crimes of a sexual nature, some of these geriatrics can be targeted by angry, younger inmates and thus need constant protection.

Noting that new thinking is required (and that HM Inspector of Prisons has already cottoned onto this), Mr MacAskill suggests that electronic tagging may be sufficient for some frail and aged offenders, either in their home or a specialised care setting. Buying a care home and reinforcing it with modest security measures might be a better option than a better option than keeping them in prison, he adds.

The problem of older prisoners has long been recognised. England’s Prisons & Probation Ombudsman noted in his latest report that prisons designed for fit, young men “must adjust to the largely unexpected and unplanned roles of care home and even hospice. Increasingly, prison staff are having to manage not just ageing prisoners, but the end of prisoners’ lives and death itself.”

The Prison Reform Trust, in 2014, said the prison system was “struggling to cope with the rapidly growing numbers of old, sick and disabled people behind bars”. That same year, Scottish Justice Matters, the journal of the Scottish Consortium for Crime and Criminal Justice, acknowledged that frail prisoners posed a challenge for Scottish prisons even though they were modest in number. “The daily challenge of coping with disability and supporting those who struggle is a matter of growing importance for individuals and prison managers” it said. Options needed to be debated over local arrangements to create the best solution in caring for frail prisoners.

This is sensible. Hard-pressed prison officers have enough to do without trying to give dedicated care to geriatric prisoners. A care home with added security sounds like a viable solution, though winning round local communities may prove difficult. Parents do not take kindly to the presence of a handful of convicted if elderly sex offenders in their midst. Prisons have been modernised to care for older and frail prisoners, but if the public’s fears can be addressed, the care-home option is surely worth investigating.