Germany – Reflecting demographic trends, Germany's prison population is ageing. The largest unit for senior prisoners in the country is in Bielefeld-Senne, east of Cologne – where inmates live in specially adapted cells and aren't required to work once they pass retirement age.
Walking into Senne prison, 200 kilometres east of Cologne in western Germany, things look a little different from what you might expect.
Aside from the fact that the prison hall opens directly on to the grounds, if you look closer you'll notice a lot of grey and white hair.
Just as in the outside world, the prison population in Germany is ageing.
According to a study published in 2022, on Social Care for Older People in German Prisons, "in Germany, the number of prisoners over 60 years of age has quadrupled since the 1990s" – reflecting a wider demographic trend which has seen the percentage of people over 60 in the country's general population rise from almost 25 percent in 2003 to more than 28 percent in 2018.
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As the study notes: "Prisons were designed with a much younger population in mind and as a result are ill-equipped and ill-prepared to deal with the often complex needs of older people," citing "victimisation in a system where strength and physical fitness are valued and a 'macho culture' prevails" as one such factor.
Senne prison is one of several in the country with a unit reserved for seniors – with 87 current occupants. In total, German prisons currently provide 331 age-segregated places for older inmates, who have specific needs.
Lifts and accessible showers
The health challenges that come with age are one major challenge these specialist units are tasked with addressing.
Meike Mönikes, head of the senior unit at Senne, said: "We have people with various forms of dementia, people with cancer, people who have difficulty getting around, people who need a walker."
The unit is accessible by two lifts and other modifications have been made.
"There's a balustrade running the length of the corridor along the walls, and a bathroom with showers. And in each shower, there are handles to hold on to and a stool on which you can sit to wash yourself," explained Mönikes.
She added: "We see a lot of people with premature ageing here, compared with the rest of the population."
It's an observation borne out by the study, which notes: "The health of older prisoners is considerably poorer than that of their community-dwelling peers, with the accelerated ageing process making a difference of up to 15 years."
Conditions with higher rates among prisoners include gastric ulcers, chronic lung diseases, circulatory disorders, reduced mobility and depression, with the study also reporting evidence that incarceration leads to cognitive decline.
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Retirement and rehabilitation
An inmate assigned to library duty at Senne cheerfully shows us around his room, saying: "For years, I was in another closed prison. But here, I'm a human being again."
Rehabilitation is the credo of the prison's director Kerstin Höltkemeyer-Schwick. "In a closed prison, you can't prepare people for freedom. A closed prison is like learning to swim out of the water. To do that, you have to give them more freedom, little by little, outside prison too," she said.
Here, reintegration into the labour market is no longer the goal, and furthermore inmates past retirement age are not required to work in prison – which in regular prisons means they can remain locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day.
At Senne and other similar senior units, rehabilitation takes the form of age-appropriate activities.
At the age-segregated Schwalmstadt-Kornhaus prison in Hesse, these include cognitive training, a fitness programme for older people, dietary advice and cookery courses, vegetable growing, and a programme to increase social skills.
For older adults to be considered for places in these specialist units, they must be considered a low security risk – and according to the 2022 study, recidivism rates are low among older inmates and they are less likely than young offenders to have committed violent crimes.
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In age-segregated housing units, cells are generally left open during the day so that prisoners can organise their day together and socialise.
At Senne, the staff are convinced that the open prison concept works well for this older population. They say the rate of those allowed weekend leave who fail to return is between 0.1 and 0.3 percent.
One challenge, however, remains: how to deal with the end of life in prison.
Palliative care is not integrated in the German prison system, with some states using external hospices and others transferring inmates to prison hospitals, which the 2022 study notes "suggests that the emphasis lies on meeting medical needs rather than on providing a holistic service".
For some long-term prisoners, on-site palliative care would allow them to end their days in, for better or worse, the only environment they know.
This article was adapted from the original version in French.
