Health Axis: Chronic Illness, Aging and the Lived Experience of Imprisonment

Abstract In recent years, research on aging in prison has grown in step with the greying of prison populations. Yet how physical degeneration and illness affect the prison experience remains marginal in accounts of adaptation or ‘emotional survival’ in prison life, leaving unmapped significant aspects of the relationship between health, healthcare and incarceration. Drawing from extensive group interviews with older incarcerated people living with chronic illnesses, this article examines how healthcare challenges intersect with daily practices and ways of thinking, shaping routines and strategies incarcerated people develop in efforts to get by, manage time, interact with others and recraft narratives of self. Doing so, the article positions physical health as a central axis in the lived experience of imprisonment.