How do people age in prison, what are the existential consequences, and most importantly, how can one find meaning in the later stages of life when deprived of freedom? These are the questions Diete Humblet tackles in the CAGED project, a research initiative funded by the European Commission through an ERC Starting Grant. Globally, the number of ageing individuals behind bars is on the rise, sparking growing interest in how prison environments can create the basic conditions for a meaningful life for older people.
âWhen we think about the detention of older individuals, or those who grow old in prison, we still tend to approach it from a narrow biomedical perspective,â says Humblet. âGerontology, as the multidisciplinary study of ageing, in Europe does not typically focus on the context of detention. My research aims to change that and build a bridge between gerontology on the one hand, and penology (the study of punishment for rule-breaking behaviour and the penalties imposed, such as imprisonment) on the other. My research specifically addresses the issue of meaning, in the scientific sense of the term: we explore whether and how individuals in prison can find meaning in their lives. For those ageing in detention, this is often a challenge, as they watch the years slip away, and the hope for a meaningful life, either inside or outside the prison walls, becomes increasingly important."
The CAGED project is not Humbletâs first foray into this topic. She studied law in Antwerp, criminology in Ghent, and completed her PhD at VUB on the same theme. Initially, she engaged in extensive correspondence with older individuals who had lost their freedom. This was followed by ethnographic research in the same context, in Merksplas and Bruges (which also has a womenâs wing), revealing the diverse and numerous needs of this growing group and the struggles prisons face in addressing them. As a holder of an FWO Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship at VUB, she launched a project where older prisoners captured what mattered to them through photographs and trained prison staff to empathise with âthe other sideâ through simulation exercises.
"Belgium is an excellent case study with broad relevance for all European jurisdictions."
According to Humblet, the undervaluation of research on ageing in detention is one of the most pressing challenges in the social scientific study of criminal behaviour and societyâs response to it. âIn Europe, in particular, scientific knowledge is lagging behind,â she explains. âThe CAGED project meets this critical need by investigating how existential psychosocial changes associated with ageing intersect with the effects of imprisonment.â
The project will delve into the existential dimensions of ageing in detention. âWe will do this by employing both multiple and novel interview techniques and a more quantitatively driven approach,â says Humblet. âOur aim is to develop a methodology to measure existential meaning, across different regimes and various groups of ageing prisoners. Belgium is renowned for its varied approaches to both the integration and segregation of older people in detention, making it an ideal case study with broad relevance for European jurisdictions. The study will also examine an age-segregated facility for older adults in Germany, which is quite unique in Europe.â
CAGED is expected to culminate in a comprehensive interdisciplinary theoretical framework for studying ageing in detention and usher in a new field of geronto-penology. âWe aim to highlight the differences between mere survival strategies of prisoners and what truly matters to themâexperiencing a meaningful existence.â *
*This is a machine translation. We apologise for any inaccuracies.