MenACE project featured in the Portuguese Newspaper "Jornal de Notícias"
Portugal, 3rd May, 2017

MenACE project was mentioned in a Portuguese newspaper within an article entitled: “The number of elderly inmates’ doubles in seven years”. According to the Portuguese Prison Administration, a partner in this project, the number of inmates with 60 or more years doubled, in the last seven years, increasing from 372 in 2010 to 755 in 2016. For the prison administration, this is a source of concern and poses many challenges, since there is a need to adjust the prisons’ physical spaces and the design of activities/occupations to the age constraints and needs of these inmates. In the article, the main idea, aims, and lifespan of the MenACE project are also explained, and the partnership is presented.  
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To read the full article (in Portuguese), click on the image.

Institutionalized: Mental Health Behind Bars
​America’s relationship with its mentally ill population continues to suffer as a result of inadequacies in the country’s mental health care system. For the mentally ill in Chicago, the effects of this inadequacy are felt on a magnified scale, as budget cuts and a lack of community-based mental health resources have left these individuals with minimal support. More often than not, this means being repeatedly swept up into the criminal justice system for low-level, non-violent crimes. 
​VICE News takes an immersive look at this issue by going inside the Cook County Jail and speaking with community members on Chicago's south side.

Source: VICE News

In America some 2.2 million people are behind bars, and the prisoners are getting older. The number of people over the age of 65 who were in prison has doubled since 2007. Phillip Burdick is 64. He works alongside Mr Baxter in a program called the Gold Coats. The volunteer inmates who become Gold Coats are carefully screened and shadow an experienced volunteer sometimes for several months of training. Older prisoners often have special needs; some have problems with mobility, others dementia or mental health. Caring for the elderly behind bars presents unique challenges. Prisoners can have the physiological age of someone 10 to 15 years older. 

Source: The Economist

The Dominican Republic opens a special prison for elderly inmates
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Source: Noticiero Univision (María Elena Salinas y Jorge Ramos) 
(Video in Spanish)

 Fault Lines - Dying Inside: Elderly in prison
The massive prison population in the U.S. is getting older. Long sentences that were handed out decades ago are catching up with the American justice system, and prisons across the country are dedicating entire units just to house the elderly. During difficult economic times, the issue has hit a crisis point. Estimates are that locking up an older inmate costs three times as much as a younger one. Fault Lines gains exclusive and unprecedented access to jails and prisons across the country to find out how prisons are dealing with aging inmates—and to ask who are the prisoners who are turning gray behind bars?

Source: Al Jazeera America