In addition, their ageing process also points to the possibility of increased dependency on that state, tax payers and health services. As such, their age also affects their access, to power, social privileges and legitimacy due to their increased dependency on the state. Furthermore, the largest intersection for the older offender is the negative effects that are accompanied by ageing and the mere incarceration that completely effects their agency and power. The incarceration in of itself, limits an individuals life chance and opportunities, and if we were to combine that with age, these individuals have no control over their treatment. In fact, Age-related stereotypes also influence the ways in which health and other resources are allocated to them (Aday, 1994). There are numerous rights which are affected by the intersectionality of age and incarceration in accordance with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the UN in 1955, the United Nations Principles for Older Persons adopted by the General Assembly in 1991 and the Convention on the rights of persons with disability brought into force in …show more content…
As stated by the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (1991), these standards include standard living conditions that include access to food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. As stated previously, since prisons were designed to punish the young offender, their health service and staff were designed and trained to treat the typical offender. Treatment of chronic illnesses associated with cancer, dementia, diabetes and cardiovascular disease is becoming more of a concern as the proportion of older offenders continues to increase (Sapers, 2011). In turn, the treatment of these types of illnesses often require access to medical care which is not provided in most prisons ( Sapers, 2011). Many offenders lack access to proper health care, thus violating their human rights. Moreover, it is important to state that these conclusions do not justify that these human rights violations only occur to those in prison. In fact, not only are the rights relating to appropriate health care violated but we can also assume that the right to security is also violated. As stated in the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (1991), older individuals inherently have the right to access to health