Accelerated Aging, Debilitation, Slow Death, and the Multiple Temporalities of Aging Incarcerated Persons: A Philip K. Dickian Science Fiction Examination

Prisons are debilitating and disorienting spaces. Temporal realities themselves are altered from those of the outside world. This paper builds upon a study of prison staff work with aging incarcerated persons in Canadian federal penitentiaries, wherein the prison environment itself contributes to accelerated aging and slow death. Simultaneously, temporal experiences in prison both slow and become cyclic, rhythmic. These multiple temporalities flow independent of the "outside" world, which, from the perspective of incarcerated persons, accelerates. To reconcile these multiple, conflicting simultaneous temporalities, we turn to science fiction, specifically the works of Philip K. Dick, to build a conceptual world where such paradoxical temporalities coexist. A bricolage approach is adopted to interrogate these temporalities, and their effects on incarcerated persons, including debilitation and institutionalization, and the production of persons often incapable of transitioning back to the "real" world outside of prison. Proposals for both nursing practice and future research possibilities are provided.