Social Care, Older People and Imprisonment

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decade, the experiences and needs of older people in prison have become the focus of extensive multidisciplinary academic research, combined with policy developments and new initiatives. Much of this research has focused on health needs, including dementia and, more recently, the impacts of COVID-19. Alongside this, there has been a recognition of the specific social care needs of imprisoned older people, including women, accompanied by innovative initiatives such as ‘peer care’, as exemplified in buddy support programmes. These social care needs do not disappear if and when the person is released, and particular challenges have emerged in cases where older people are approved to leave the prison setting on parole, for example, but no accommodation support appropriate to their needs is available. In addition, in some countries, older people in prison live in designated dementia care units, and the sense of community and support in this kind of unit may not be experienced outside the prison. Some countries have developed secure care homes or ‘halfway houses’, as in Canada, whereas in other jurisdictions such provision is not available and older people may remain in prison even if they are eligible for release on parole or license, simply because there is no appropriate community-based provision. Some older people become homeless on release from prison and may struggle to access social care when needed.

This Special Issue invites articles addressing the challenges of providing social care for older people in prison, some of whom are ageing in prison as a consequence of long sentences, including indeterminate sentences and whole-life sentences without the opportunity of parole. Others will not outlive their sentence length (thus serving de facto whole life sentences) or their family members will be ill, frail or deceased when they are released.

This Special Issue provides a platform for the global exchange of evidence of effective initiatives and programmes for incarcerated older people, and for the interchange of information about gaps in policies, the needs for specific social care policies, and the challenges of implementation. The editors are particularly keen to include research that is service user-led or that involves service users in the design and research process, and/or includes experiential accounts of using or providing social care services in this context.

We invite scholars to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of providing appropriate social care for older people in prison and after release. Contributions could include empirical analyses, research findings and case studies; reflective pieces are also welcome, as are explorations of methodological challenges of researching social care with a population that may be vulnerable not only by reason of age but also by reason of health, disability and life experience.

We welcome international contributions from all over the world, we are especially keen to include contributions from the Global South and to include diverse perspectives that challenge the dominance of research on Western white men. We are keen to include articles that explore the social care needs of LGBTQ+ older people, women and indigenous and marginalised communities, and to include examples of innovative and responsive approaches to meeting these needs which go beyond a narrow definition of social care to include spiritual, social, educational and other forms of care.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Social care in prisons for older people, including people experiencing dementia;
• Peer care in prisons (including support and training for peer caregivers);
• Social care for older people after release, including secure community care provision;
• Social care for older people in prisons and innovative technologies;
• Meeting the social care needs of marginalised older people whilst in prison and afterwards;
• The impacts of COVID-19 on informal care for older people leaving prison;
• Policies, practice guidelines and regulations relating to the provision of social care for older people in prison;
• Future challenges in relation to social care for older people in prison and after release;
• The role of human rights law in relation to social care for older people in prison or after release.

Prof. Helen Codd
Dr. Warren Stewart
Dr. Shiobhan Rogers
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• older people
• prison
• health needs
• social care