The aging seen from prison: psychosocial analysis of LGBT old age with womens and men deprived of freedom at the brazilian context of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Old age is a universal phenomenon that has notably expanded in the Brazilian population, including within the prison system. However, the arrival of the coronavirus in Brazilian prisons reinforced the need to pay attention to the psychosocial vulnerabilities that permeate this environment and affect the population in prison. The study aimed to analyze and compare the social representations of women and men in deprivation of liberty about the conditions that LGBT elderly people have to experience a safe old age in the context in which they live. It is characterized as a qualitative research, based on the Theory of Social Representations, of a descriptive and comparative nature, with cross-sectional data and a non-probabilistic convenience sample. There were 28 people living in deprivation of liberty in male and female penal units, during the pandemic period in a Brazilian state. It is evident that in the representations of the participants, old age is not a phase full of tranquility, as there are conditions and resources necessary to live it well. It is concluded that there is a predominance of many stereotypes about sexual orientation, lifestyle, loneliness in old age and sexuality among the elderly, which can be justified by the lack of knowledge on the subject or even the lack of contact with people LGBT's. © 2022, Sociedad Interamericana de Psicologia. All rights reserved.