**1.1. Definitions**

Correctional facilities are where people are housed when they have been accused or convicted of breaking the law by committing crimes in a country, and the criminal justice system has deemed they are dangerous to the public [14]. They are placed in correctional facilities to be segregated, to protect the population of that country from their actions and to maintain societal laws [14]. There are many different terms used across the world to refer to the correctional environment including corrections, correctional setting, correctional facility, correctional institution, prison, gaol, jail, lock-up, penal institution, penitentiary and incarceration [15].

There are many different terms used to describe the people who reside in correctional facilities including prisoner, crim, criminal, inmate, offender, convict, con, incarcerated, gaolbird [16].

The morbidity classification of an aged or elderly prisoner commences at 50 years whereas in the broader population group the morbidity classification begins at 60–65 years of age which is an equivalent disparity of 10 years [8, 17–19], therefore someone 50 years old is classified as being aged in the correctional setting. This difference in age is related to lifestyle factors including minimal medical care, substance misuse, low education levels prior to the prisoner entering the correctional environment, as well as the effect of life in prison with isolation from family and threats of violence [18, 20].

Dementia has been defined by the World Health Organisation [4] (p. 2) as "a syndrome, usually of a chronic or progressive nature, caused by a variety of brain illnesses that affect memory, thinking, behaviour and ability to perform everyday activities [9]." The impairment that this causes is permanent and not reversible, resulting in the person not being able to live independently [3, 4].

Cognitive impairment is where the person is unable to make everyday decisions, has problems with remembering things, being unable to concentrate on activities or learn new things [21]. Cognitive impairment can be an early sign for the development of dementia and has many differing causes [21].
