Community Reintegration of Previously Incarcerated Older Adults: Exploratory Insights from a Canadian Community Residential Facility Program

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses an immediate gap in knowledge about community reintegration of previously incarcerated older adults. It presents an exploratory case study of a community residential facility program in Ontario, Canada, focusing on the experiences and perspectives of older residents, staff members, and community stakeholders on the community reintegration of previously incarcerated older men. Findings provide insights into the aging-related reintegration issues such as the older men’s ability to access health and medical services upon community reentry, the challenges and opportunities of the continuum of support (or lack thereof) to help ease the reintegration process, and stigma and other barriers the older men face as they attempt to access long-term care upon release from correctional institutions. Emergent questions for research, policy, and practice are highlighted and discussed to set an agenda for expanding the thread of inquiry into the community reintegration of previously incarcerated older adults. Future research calls for further investigation into the diversity of experiences (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, geographical locale) to advance the field of study as it relates to aging and social policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Older men
• incarceration
• community reintegration
• continuum of support
• social care
• health care
• stigma
• Canada

Key points

• Older adults who are released from correctional institutions face difficult and problematic transitions into the community.

• Canadian correctional service frameworks and programs provide insights into the challenges and opportunities of community reintegration.

• Further research on the diversity of experiences of formerly incarcerated older adults is critical.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Correctional Service Canada and supported, in part, by the Canada Research Chairs program.