Understanding the feelings of incarcerated elderly

Abstract

Introduction: Elderly people living under adverse conditions, such as those deprived of their liberty, need, after incarceration, to readjust their life habits, both in the management of daily prison time and in the management of social, professional and family relationships. Objectives: to understand the feelings of the incarcerated elderly. Methods: Qualitative research, based on the assumptions of Hermeneutics-Dialectic. 42 elderly prisoners from four penitentiaries in the oste region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, participated. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews. Results: From the analysis of the data obtained in the question “Talk about the meaning of your incarceration. How's that for you? And for your family members? it was possible to identify five analytical categories regarding the feelings of the incarcerated elderly, among them the feeling of regret, the loss of family life, the family repercussions, the loss of freedom and the feeling of injustice. Conclusions: Considering that the objective of this research was to understand the feelings of the elderly in relation to incarceration, it is possible to identify the different constructions that they used to express their perceptions regarding these feelings.