Doing Harder Time?: The Experiences of an Ageing Male Prison Population in England and Wales

In his seminal text Society of Captives, Gresham Sykes discusses the general pains of imprisonment to which all prisoners are subjected: the deprivation of liberty, the deprivation of heterosexual relationships, and the deprivation of autonomy.

Sykes recognised that different prisoners experience these pains differently, and as a result, are affected to a greater or lesser degree by their time inside.
In this groundbreaking book, Natalie Mann investigates the idea that apart from the general pains of imprisonment discussed by Sykes, certain characteristics which certain prisoners hold makes them more likely to suffer from what she terms term ‘added pains’, i.e. the extra difficulties, deprivations and frustrations which exist within certain subsections of the prison population.
The ageing prison population is a key example of a group who experience added pains of imprisonment. Their weaker appearance, their old-fashioned views and their less able bodies are all factors which result in them experiencing extra problems within prison. It is these added pains and the ageing men’s experiences of them, which this book addresses.
Framed within the theoretical perspective of structuration theory, but also drawing on aspects of Goffman’s interactionism and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, this book offers a unique interpretation of research carried out with ageing prisoners and their prison officers and shows the reality of prison for those who are reaching the end of their life course.