Geriatric Offenders

Lawmakers have the biggest opportunity to make a change in the prison problem in our country today. By ending jail time as a consequence for low- level offenses, establishing drug courts nationally, and changing policies such as mandatory minimum sentences and three- strike laws would greatly reduce the number of people who would enter prison in the future. Such an action would require effective parole programs, which are necessary for proper rehabilitation of prisoners. Some believe inmates who are still serving sentences for crimes they committed decades

Ever since the first prison opened in the United States in 1790, incarceration has been the center of the nations criminal justice system. Over this 200 year period many creative alternatives to incarceration have been tried, and many at a much lower cost than imprisonment. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s when our criminal justice systems across the country began experiencing a problem with overcrowding of facilities. This problem forced lawmakers to develop new options for sentencing criminal offenders.

Within the last four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has continued to increase exponentially. The Bureau of Justice reports that the inmate population in 1971 was estimated at two hundred thousand, while the current number stands at roughly 1.5 million – nearly eight times more than the number of inmates in 1971. Because of the high costs associated with prison operations, their overcrowding, and wrongful convictions, California introduced legislative measures such as Propositions 36 and 47 as well as Assembly Bills 109 and 117, in order to lessen the number of incarcerations. Not only will implementing these reforms save the state millions in revenue, they will also rightfully place truly dangerous criminals in

This law is much stricter than prior laws. At first a person convicted of two serious felonies, such as burglary of a residence and robbery, who then committed a third serious felony, such as another robbery, would only have been sentenced to seven years. The Three Strikes Law has overcrowded the prison system beyond capacity. The overcrowding has gotten to the point where courts are considering ordering the prisons to release some of the prisoners with many of these inmates not having received any rehabilitation or vocational training to prepare them for the outside world. Today, it costs about $20,000 per year to confine a young person that is physically fit, but three Strikes laws would create a huge, geriatric prison population that would be far more expensive to care for. The estimated cost of maintaining an older prisoner is three times that required for a younger prisoner. It would cost about $60,000 per year for an older prisoner. The cost might be worth it if older prisoners represented a danger to society. But experts tell us that age is the most powerful crime reducer. Most crimes are committed by men between the ages of 15 and 24.

Today, more than 2 million Americans are incarcerated in either a state facility, federal correctional facility or a local installation (Batey,2002). Due to longer sentences, incorporating harsh sentencing guidelines, and mandatory minimum punishments (NeSmith,2015). With each inmate costing taxpayers an average of $30,000 annually. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 were increased sentences for a broad range of offenses, as well as establishing federal penalties for most murders and a large number of other crimes already subject to state law (Batey,2002). In addition to reducing the discretion of state judicial systems; as well as 85 percent of sentence satisfaction and establishing a mandatory life sentence for those convicted of three serious violent crimes or drug offenses (NeSmith,2015). .

Between 1900 and 2000, the life expectancy in this country has risen from 47 to 78 years of age (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p. 404). Although the older population has grown from 4% to 13% in the United States during the same period, the elder prison population has grown substantially. For example, between 1994 and 1998, Texas saw an 86% increase in the elderly prison populations while California expects to see a 200% increase by 2020 (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p. 404). When determining the need to incarcerate an elderly individual, several costly considerations must be made. Elderly inmates require more medical care compared to the younger prisoners and special accommodations must be consider for older inmates (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p.

The challenges of the elderly prison population are mostly cost related. Due to the fact that as baby boomers throughout the nation have begun to age the prison population in the United States has aged as well. For example, the elderly prison population in 2003 was almost 10 percent and in nearly a decade later the elderly prison population doubled. A 2014 analysis by the Urban Institute posits that this increase in the elderly population could carry significant financial costs. When comparing the elderly population to that of the general population, they tend to experience accelerated ageing caused by things such as substance abuse and any other unhealthy choices in lifestyle. Also, according to this report by the Urban Institute elderly prisoners

The issue with aging prison members is that our legal system spends a majority of the money on our older inmates than our younger members. The three-strike rule in the United States is a big factor on why we have such a high rate with older inmates in our prisons. We imprison older members for life after they have committed more than three felonies regardless of the crime. That leads to our legal system being stuck with a lot of aging inmates. Our legal system has to pay more money in order to accommodate our older inmates because they require more medical needs. The Criminal justice system is spending a significant amount of money on our elderly sick inmates even though they are unable to commit any more crimes, leading to more problems

The increase in older inmates is due in part to the shift in thinking, rather than rehabilitating the ‘sick’, we should incapacitate those who offend. Moreover, aging inmates have increased in number because of medical advancement. Through these major changes inmates have been growing rapidly amongst the prison population. Rather than treat offenders as ‘sick’ individuals and crime as an ‘illness’ we should focus on incapacitating criminals from committing future crimes—such punishment includes mandatory minimum sentencing. Thus, the shift in reasoning has led to inmates being incarcerated for longer periods of time leading to growth of older inmates. As for medical advancement, the availability of new medication and treatments has aided

People should not assume that being older has limitation. Ageism is a form of discrimination and people may not even know they are doing it. There should be more education provided about our geriatric population so that we know what expected changes are as we get older, and what are not expected changes as well. This education is also needed so that we can understand our older family members a bit more as well. Gran Torino does a beautiful job of disproving that getting older in age is nothing but a number.

With the increased numbers of those who are being successfully convicted of historical sex crimes, and this is set to rise further. The SPS said 12% of its prisoners in Scotland, are now over 50, with more than 100 older than 65. We might now ask that with the new increased numbers going through the Scottish prison system do they have a legal definition of exactly what an older prisoner is. This was originally thought to be a rather debatable topic, which it was. There is no legal definition as to what is an older prisoner is. The most common legislation that would be about age, is that of when does someone become criminally responsible for their actions.

Elderly inmates are a growing segment of the incarcerated population: just under 20% of federal inmates which is a 50% increase in he past decade and 30% of federal offenders under supervision in the community are more than 50 years old (Ottawa, 2011). These offenders are more likely to have been convicted of more serious violent offences or sexual offences, although many of their cases involve cold case or historical crimes, which makes them a lower risk to society (Griffiths, C. T., & Murdoch, D. J. 2014).

In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the

This is a society of isms, racism, sexism, and ageism. It labels, stereotypes, and categorizes people, by shape, size, color, and age. The elderly in their later years should be able to have a peaceable life, treated with dignity and respect. However, pretty much anyone under the age of 50 is a target for an attack of an attitude of ageism at some point. Those who do the disrespecting don’t stop to consider that at some point, they will also be at the receiving end of that attitude.” (Webb)

Overall, a crime is still a crime just like a rapist will remain a rapist despite of his age. Also, detention facilities or prisons and jails should have a separate place or areas for juveniles from the adult prisoner so that the negative behavior and wrongdoings of the adult prisoners will not be adapted. As it was mentioned, there are dangers on their mental health when people who are not around their age be surrounded with criminals. Therefore, it might affect their personal development.