DAVID Strang, the chief inspector of prisons for Scotland, is used to examining the conditions of the country’s jails and the treatment of the inmates. But there is one thing in particular he has noticed during his recent visits: the increasing number of older prisoners.
Within the last year alone, the number of inmates over the age of 60 has increased by a fifth, and – as with wider society – an older prison population means dealing with the increasingly complex health and social care needs that go with it. It also presents a moral and practical problem for government – traditionally, we think of prisons as places that punish and rehabilitate, but to what extent should they also be places that are responsible for social care too?
It is questions like these that are at the heart of Mr Strang’s excellent new report on older prisoners and some of its findings are truly disturbing. The elderly prisoner, for example, whose wheelchair does not fit through the doors so is forced to get out of the chair, fold it down and then drag it into his cell. Some prisoners speak about the care and kindness they have been shown by other prisoners and staff, but for many older inmates the accommodation and conditions are unsuitable and upsetting.
On the question of why we have ended up here, there are a number of factors at play. Partly, it is because the ageing of the population in general is reflected in prisons but it is also because of the rise in the number of convictions for historical sex abuse and the fact that sentences are getting longer. The problem is that public and state services were clearly not ready for the change and prisons were never designed with older people in mind. Prison staff are also not trained to deal with the needs of social care, even though many wardens, as well as other prisoners, do what they can. It is shocking too that there is no overall strategy for managing this issue, as there is for women prisoners.
The challenge now for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service is to build such a strategy. Earlier this year, as part of our Grey Matters series, The Herald called for a renewed effort to ensure that public services meet the needs of older people and this must include the prison service. Perhaps this will mean smaller units for older prisoners along the lines proposed for female inmates, although it should be noted that many older prisoners like living in a mixed-age environment for the same reasons that older people in the community do, and this should be taken into account.
At the very least, the prison service in Scotland cannot go on ignoring the health and social care needs of its older prisoners, and must reform in a way that reflects the ageing of its inmates. This may mean different accommodation and more and different training for staff – and it will certainly mean more investment. But the moral and practical case is clear: as the prison population changes so the way prisons are run must change too.
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