University News Last updated 03 July 2014
Prisons are witnessing a massive surge in elderly inmates - many of whom have been found guilty of sex offences - and are completely ill-equipped to cope, a leading criminologist warned.
Nearly 4,000 over-60s are now behind bars, with numbers having soared by 130 percent between 2002 and 2013. Following Rolf Harris’ conviction for sex offences last week, Professor David Wilson of Birmingham City University, said there is no nationwide strategy for coping with the increased presence of older inmates in UK prisons.
“Four out of 10 of these prisoners were convicted of sex offences and people over 60 are the fastest growing age group in the prison estate, yet there is no national strategy for the elderly who get sent to prison.
“While there are some pockets of good practice at prisons such as Whatton and Wymott, the Prison Service needs to develop a strategy to cope with this fastest growing section of the prison population or they will simply be failing in their duty of care to the elderly people that they are locking up.
“We have seen reports where older prisoners have raised concerns about a range of unmet health needs, from people entering prison having had the medication they were receiving in the community stopped, to female prisoners claiming that their hormone replacement treatment was withdrawn. In one reported case a prisoner’s prostate treatment was stopped until a new referral was made to the local hospital – after a delay of six months.
“It is becoming more and more apparent that healthcare staff in the Prison Service do not have access to sufficient resources to deal with the social care needs - particularly aids for daily living - for elderly prisoners.”