Research commissioned by The Salvation Army showed the age at which a prisoner is considered “aged” is just 50, and for the indigenous prison population, just 45.

The study, led by professor Bruce Stevens at Charles Sturt University, also found older inmates are more vulnerable to ‘poorer health’, with the average prison population having 2.5 times the diagnoses of the general population.

“Sometimes they're getting frail (and) getting dementia at earlier ages, so they face victimisation because of their mobility,” Prof. Stevens told SBS.

With the prison population rising, he also says there will be an increasing demand for specialist health care.

“There are some specialists, including podiatrists, physios, psychiatrists and geriatricians, but, again, we don't know, the demand on them is probably far more than they can actually meet.”

Image credit: The Ageing of Australian Prisoners – Matthew Willis, Australian Institute of Criminology.