‘Above and beyond’
When both healthcare and prison staff felt able and were willing to go ‘above and beyond’ the rigid prison process by being more flexible, it was greatly appreciated by prisoners. This more flexible approach was also beneficial in that it led to improved health and wellbeing outcomes among older prisoners.It was often the case that issues that became apparent during the OHSCAP assessment were simply being dealt with within the failing rigid prison processes. For example, older adults may have been waiting for their friends’/family members’ telephone numbers to be approved so they could call them from prison. This process is necessary to prevent prisoners contacting victims or other vulnerable individuals. However, sometimes this process can take a number of weeks causing great distress to those who are incarcerated and their family/friends. If the member of staff simply told the prisoner of the process to repeat to get their telephone numbers approved, this had no impact. However, if the staff member was able to investigate (