Abstract
This original and ground-breaking interdisciplinary article brings together perspectives from gerontology, criminology, penology, and social policy to explore critically the nature and consequences of the lack of visibility of prisons, prisoners, and ex-prisoners within global research, policy and practice on age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC), at a time when increasing numbers of people are ageing in prison settings in many countries. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose challenges in the contexts both of older peoples’ lives, wellbeing, and health, and also within prison settings, and thus it is timely to reflect on the links between older people, prisons, and cities, at a time of ongoing change. Just as there is an extensive body of ongoing research exploring age-friendly cities and communities, there is extensive published research on older people’s experiences of imprisonment, and a growing body of research on ageing in the prison setting. However, these two research and policy fields have evolved largely independently and separately, leading to a lack of visibility of prisons and prisoners within AFCC research and policy and, similarly, the omission of consideration of the relevance of AFCC research and policy to older prisoners and ex-prisoners. Existing checklists and tools for assessing and measuring the age-friendliness of cities and communities may be of limited relevance in the context of prisons and prisoners. This article identifies the potential for integration and for cross-disciplinary research in this context, concluding with recommendations for developing inclusive research, policies, and evaluation frameworks which recognise and include prisons and older prisoners, both during and after incarceration.
Highlights
These numbers are increasing, older prisoners form a minority of the prison population, and within this population older women constitute a minority within a minority [8]
Civic participation is challenging in jurisdictions, including some US states, where some or all ex-prisoners are disenfranchised, sometimes for life, by reason of a felony conviction. These felony disenfranchisement laws mean that are some convicted offenders banned from voting and banned from seeking civic and political offices, but there is no political advantage to be gained by politicians and civic leaders if they engage with the views and needs of ex-offenders and ex-prisoners [56]
Practice and policies on Age-Friendly Cities and Communities promulgates a vision of a positive, friendly, accessible locale and community, including active, engaged, and participatory older citizens, and older ex-prisoners, especially those who become homeless or continue to offend, do not fit into this almost-utopian vision
Summary
The development of “age-friendly cities and communities” (AFCC) has become a highly significant theme in relation to public policy and ageing that has resulted in a Global Network for Age-Friendly. This reflects the relative neglect of older peoples’ experiences as offenders, prisoners, and ex-prisoners within gerontology as a whole, a recent edited collection exploring diversity and difference in experiences of ageing included a chapter on ageing in prison, and this inclusion is to be welcomed [4] To some extent this is surprising, as the evolution and development of the “age-friendly cities and communities” (AFCC) movement from the early 1980s onwards has been mirrored by a growing recognition of the involvement of older people in the criminal justice process, as victims and as offenders. These two fields of research have emerged and evolved largely independently of each other and whilst there is a great deal of potential for exchange of good practice at present these two disciplinary approaches seem to constitute primarily separate academic and policy-making spaces
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
