‘A sense of purpose’: Older prisoners’ experiences of successful ageing behind bars

There is growing interest in ageing offenders and their lives prison. However, this subject often studied from a deprivation perspective, focusing on issues such as lack of medical care proper environmental conditions. This article highlights experiences wellbeing while confinement, using the conceptual framework successful ageing. An interpretive phenomenological analysis perspective was used to analyse narratives 18 older prisoners. The revealed four themes: ‘Like all other men’: comparing prison with within community; ‘Better than what I have outside’: an escape life loneliness, poverty delinquency; ‘Here get some respect’: prisoner mentor; ‘I feel accomplished’: growth self-discovery means for findings suggest that may not be perceived single, unified process, but personal individual phenomenon, old age facilitate positive changes