Ex-inmate helps OAP prisoners

Stuart Ware used his experience of prison life to help other older inmates

A former inmate is working with elderly people released from jail who he says are not getting the support they should from public services.

The recent release of the ailing Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has highlighted how older inmates can have specific needs in terms of health care or other requirements.

Stuart Ware, 71, set up the Restore 50+ network to help older prisoners as they prepare to re-enter society and to help ex-inmates source the help they need.

His own time in prison has helped him understand the needs of older inmates and the assistance they need as they re-enter society.

"Horrendous things"

Stuart, who served a year of a 21 month sentence for fraud and theft, said: "My time in prison gave me an insight into what prison life is actually like.

Stuart says that prisons mostly "run themselves"

"Prisons almost run themselves in some respects, but I also saw some horrendous things.

"Serving a sentence is totally different from any other experience.

"You are totally dependent on someone else to even just open your own door.

"How some of these people cope, I don't know.

"The loss of freedom is the worse thing."

A growing issue

Prisoners aged over 50 make up one of the fastest growing group of inmates in the country.

This is due to people serving longer sentences, and also because of advances in DNA technology, meaning previously "cold" cases have been reopened and convictions made on newly discovered evidence.

When Stuart was released ten years ago, it was on license and he encountered many of the services he's now working with.

Prior to his conviction, he worked with people who had severe drug problems and it was partly this experience that led him to set up this project.

"The focus is on help for young people"

He saw there was no other help for older prisoners, and that many can be in poor health:

He said: "All the focus is on helping young people, which I quite understand. But if you're over 50 there's no help at all. Older people released from prison need a lot more help in turning their life around, especially with a criminal record.

Stuart says the worst thing about prison "is the loss of freedom"

"I think older people can still have a lot to contribute [to society]. They've made mistakes, they've served their time, but let's make use of their skills and knowledge."

Stuart's role is to help put them in touch with services and agencies, and he works on the prisoner's behalf with the probation service.

He carefully selects the people he wants to work with: "Not one person I have worked with has re-offended. There are a few I know who we've identified that I can't work with, because I know that they will reoffend."

Stuart, who now lives in Cerne Abbas, says his time inside was "a wake up call": "I put my hands up, I served my time and I still have to suffer the consequences, like being refused visas for certain countries.

"I look back on my time in prison with sadness. I let people down and I've hurt some people and some will never understand.

"But in turning my life around I can be aware of my weaknesses and help other people."

Stuart would like to see more help available to older inmates, and is also collaborating with an Age Concern Older Offenders project also working to support elderly prisoners preparing for release, which is focussing in particular on Dorset.

"We need to recognise that older people are discriminated against in prison, in the prison service. It's the one last barrier we need to remove, so older people are treated equally like everyone else in the prison service. Older people are the most disenfranchised group in prison and their needs to be recognised and taken into account."

You can find out more about Restore 50+ via The Footprints Project