The older prisoner population in England and
Wales is increasing as the criminal justice system prosecutes for crimes
committed many years ago, and offenders grow old during long sentences. Indeed,
they have been referred to in the media as ‘the forgotten section of the prison
system’.
 |
| BBC news report can be found here |
In our paper, we discuss our experiences of
undertaking action research in prison to develop an assessment tool for staff
to ascertain older prisoner health and social care needs.
We conducted an action learning group where
prison officers, nurses and prisoners met monthly to talk about the health and
social care needs of older prisoners and the way in which they were identified
and managed. Particular challenges for older prisoners include issues with
mobility, relationships, chronic disease, their emotional health and fears
around discharge back to the community. Whilst these particular areas are
important to acknowledge, the focus of this paper is the way in which action
learning was used in this closed, disciplined environment, where structure and
order are commonplace and reflection on practice is not.
 |
| Aging prisoner-news story can be found here. |
The four themes that emerged from our data
included staying focussed, seeking clarity, the value of space and the impact
of group composition on activity and perspective. It is the prison context and
culture that has a significant impact on the efficacy of action learning. We
suggest that of primary importance in this work is being aware of the need for
‘safe space’ in which to reflect on practice where there is a group of people
working together who hold different professional philosophies, ideas and
perspectives on how prisoners should be cared for.
You can access this
article for free by using this
link.
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