ABSTRACT
In British criminological texts on imprisonment, the terms ‘elderly’ and ‘prisoner’ appear together relatively rarely. This is because, until very recently, prison research focused largely on the experiences of the largest group of prisoners – young active men – and on the challenges of managing this (often volatile and uncooperative) population. It is clear, however, that we must now concern ourselves with those whose needs, characteristics and circumstances are posing very different kinds of challenges to prison managers – the increasing number of men and women serving prison sentences in old age.
