A consequence of the tough on crime laws enacted, without careful thought in the 70’s and 80’s, is that American prisons are filled with older, and sicker, inmates. Life sentences, mandatory minimums and harsh sentences for relatively minor and violent crimes alike all contribute to the rising number of aging and ailing inmates. State correctional department budgets, already bursting, are blown apart by the medical costs related to elderly prisoners. Frail inmates who pose no threat to society are left to die in prison.
Most states have compassionate release policies in place, but rarely use them. Shockingly, according to a recent blog, in Huff Post Blog nine states have none.
The Human Rights Watch report Old Behind Bars: The Aging Prison Population Behind Bars, ( which can be found in the library section of the Reentry Central website), offers the following :
Between 2007 and 2010, as noted above, the number of sentenced state and federal prisoners age 65 or older increased by 63percent, while the overall population of sentenced prisoners grew only 0.7 percent in the same period. There are now 26,200 prisoners age 65 or older.
Between 1995 and 2010, the number of state and federal prisoners age 55 or older nearly quadrupled (increasing 282 percent), while the number of all prisoners grew by less than half (increasing 42 percent). There are now 124,400 prisoners age 55 or older.
As of 2010, 8 percent of sentenced state and federal prisoners are age 55 or older, more than doubling from 3 percent in 1995.
One in ten state prisoners is serving a life sentence.
Eleven percent of federal prisoners age 51 or older are serving sentences ranging from 30 years to life.
As with the aging non-incarcerated population, elderly prisoners face more health issues. So, why then, are states not using compassionate release policies, or in some cases, creating them, to allow the elderly to be released? Tina Maschi’s answer in her Huffington Post article is not surprising. Politics.
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