This tool
aims to support detention monitors in assessing conditions for older persons in
prisons in line with international human rights standards to ensure that the
rights of older persons in detention are protected. Many monitoring bodies have
included older persons in their consideration of groups in situations of
vulnerability when they visit places of detention, and some have identified
older people as a distinct group in a situation of vulnerability within the
prison population, examining their situation in more detail and issuing
targeted and practical recommendations to authorities which have subsequently
been accepted and adopted by governments. Based on input from National
Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) and experts, this tool provides analysis and
practical guidance to enable monitoring bodies to address systemic risk factors
for older persons in detention within the criminal justice system (although
many of the issues raised may also be relevant in other contexts), with a focus
on prevention of torture and other ill-treatment. It also serves as guidance to
policymakers and staff working in detention facilities and highlights the
negative effect of longer sentences on the prison population.
Introduction
Concepts
and protection framework
Definitions
Protection
framework
Risk
factors and situations
Arrest and
police custody
Assessment
and classification of older persons in prison
Accommodation
and infrastructure
Provision
of adequate healthcare
Terminal
illness and palliative care
Deaths in
custody
High risks:
violence and discrimination
Older
persons with disabilities
Older women
Older
persons serving sentences of life imprisonment
Rehabilitation
and reintegration
Penal Reform International (PRI)
PRI & APT (2021). Older persons in detention. A framework for preventive monitoring. Penal Reform International and Association for the Prevention of Torture. PRI_DMT-Older-persons_WEB.pdf (penalreform.org)
