'There's lots of suffering in here, but some people are suffering more': Age, Gender and the Pains of Imprisonment

Older offenders are the fastest growing group in the prison population in England and Wales. While most age groups of prisoners have been falling the number of prisoners over the age of 50 has continued to increase. Older prisoners have different needs to the general prison population; however, at the time of writing, the government has yet to implement a policy outlining standards of care for this group of prisoners.

This thesis is the result of and nine-month long ethnography that took place in two prisons, a man's, and a woman's, in England from June 2017 to February 2018. It explores the challenges faced by older people in prison, and how this lack of policy impacted on the older prisoner population. It also examines if those difficulties were experienced equally by the older men and women or if, in a system designed for young men, there were gendered differences in the challenges they faced.

The findings highlight how the older men and women suffered from three additional pains of imprisonment as a result of their incarceration: the Pains of Isolation, the Pains of Loss and the Pains of Ageing and Deteriorating Health. These additional pains, experienced by the older people, were exacerbated by a prison system that did not make any accommodation for their additional needs. However, these ageing pains of imprisonment were not felt equally by the older prisoner population. There was a gendered aspect to many of them and the older women experienced additional gendered ageing pains of imprisonment. Where possible, the older people attempted to mitigate their ageing pains of imprisonment; by forming social networks, by working, or by finding a benefit to their incarceration. However, their ability to use their limited agency was impacted by the policies of the prison regime.

This thesis considered if institutional thoughtlessness assisted in understanding why older people were experiencing additional ageing pains of imprisonment; but concluded that, as a concept, institutional thoughtlessness could not sufficiently explain why these prisoners' needs were overlooked. Moving beyond institutional thoughtlessness, the thesis explores the concept of institutional ageism and how it manifests itself at a macro, meso and micro level; concluding that the ageist policies of the prison service were making the time of older people in prison more difficult and increasing their additional ageing pains of imprisonment. Moreover, when these ageist policies intersected with gender, the ageing pains of imprisonment were experienced more keenly by the older women.