ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore and understand ways of adapting to prison life from the perspectives of older incarcerated women. The process is especially poignant, given that few of the informants were likely ever to see release from prison. I conceptualize adaptation in terms of four interrelated dimensions: day-to-day life, interpersonal relationships, the relevance of age in adaptation, and programming for an aging prison population. A qualitative research design was used in this project, informed by an inductive, constructionist approach that seeks to uncover meanings, practices, and identities related to age, in discrete contexts. More broadly, given the doubly hidden nature of women inmates (both in public awareness and in the larger body of research on prison life), it was my goal to gain a deeper understanding of an understudied population. One-time, in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven women older than 50 years at an all-female multi-security correctional facility. Findings from this study suggest that adaptations made within each of the dimensions have important impacts on the overall adaptation to prison life. I conclude with implications of the study for policy, at a time when we see a broad-based political critique of mass incarceration.
