How can criminal justice systems address the medical and social care needs of elderly prisoners?

PenalReform

The number of older prisoners in prison populations is growing in many countries, in part due to ageing populations and often in part to punitive sentencing policies. However, older prisoners are more likely than their peers in the community to be disabled, to have multiple, costly chronic health conditions, and experience age-related cognitive impairment including dementia, presenting new and pressing challenges to the delivery of healthcare in prison systems. In the tenth expert blog in our anniversary series, Cyrus Ahalt and Brie Williams, Directors of the Community Ageing Health Project at the University of California, San Francisco, discuss the implications of the growing number of older prisoners for health-related policy and practice across criminal justice systems from arrest to reintegration, and argue that policy-oriented research is urgently needed to address the needs of this vulnerable group.