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A Resource Pack for Working with Older Prisoners

If you are involved with older inmates, you should read this publication. While it is focused on Great Britain, it contains a wealth of information pertinent to the management of elderly offenders. “This resource pack was created so that peer support workers, disability liaison officers, older offender and wing officers could use its contents to implement good practice ideas and set up activities in their establishments for older prisoners ... The pack should also be used to raise awareness among colleagues of the health problems the older prisoner population is prone to and of some of the practical things they can do to make their lives easier” (p. 5). 

It is divided into four parts. 

  • Part 1. Background: facts and figures; what it is like to be an older person in prison; and reviews of conditions for older prisoners. 
  • Part 2. Health and Health Aging: normal ageing and its symptoms; what is affected by normal ageing; how to age healthily; and recognizing and responding to illnesses common among older prisoners-back pain, cancer, breast cancer, prostrate cancer, skin cancer, dementia, depression, diabetes, glaucoma, hypertension, incontinence, menopause, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s disease, and shingles. 
  • Part 3. Good Practice Ideas: environment adaptations, visits and visitors, and an officer for older prisoners; activities; healthcare; and resettlement.
  • Part 4. Information and Advice: general; activities, learning, and exercise; disability and rehabilitation; employment; finance; health, illness, and disease; housing; and welfare.