Penal System
Prison is similar for young and old
Men in prison over 50 can feel safer than younger men, and they’ve accustomed themselves to their environment. | Image: Pexels
The Swiss population overall is ageing. This is also reflected in its prisons, where there are an increasing number of older inmates. By analysing data from an earlier study, researchers have been able to find out how men over the age of fifty subjectively experience their imprisonment. They were surprised to find that they assessed their health as being on roughly the same level as in the self-assessments of younger inmates. “Perhaps they actually expect things to be worse, and so tend to rate their condition more favourably”, says Ueli Hostettler of the University of Bern.
Older inmates also felt safer than the younger ones – possibly because they assume different roles in the informal hierarchies that exist in prison. Even if older people seem to adapt quite well to spending their sunset years in prison, the researchers believe that greater attention ought to be paid to their needs.
