Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe), Guest Blogger
Those who advocated for longer prison sentences failed to take the Law of Unintended Consequences into consideration. We all know that prisons have become warehouses. There are several areas where the US leads the world. We lead all industrialized nations in infant deaths the first day of life. We lead the world in illegal drug use. In addition, we lead the world in number of people incarcerated.
The US prison population is about 2.3 million, more than any other nation. Those numbers come from a global study of prisons by the International Centre for Prison Studies, London.
China is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison, despite a population of 1.35 billion. (NOTE: That figure does not include political prisoners in administrative detention for “reeducation.”)
The unintended consequences are an aging prison population. Perhaps the for-profit prisons did not count on that glitch in their bottom line. However, prisons at both the state and Federal level are finding themselves running geriatric nursing homes. In 2010, the last year for which we have accurate data, prisoners age 65 or over increased 94 times the rate of the total prison population in the three-year period 2007-2010. During that same three-year period, the total US prison population grew 0.7%.
At the rate we are going, by the year 2030, estimates are that almost a half-million prisoners will be elderly. Most prisons spend an absolute minimum on staffing and patient health. Private prisons find the elderly cutting into their profit margin. Problems not anticipated for younger prisoners are cropping up. What good does it do for a correctional officer to give orders to a prisoner with Alzheimer’s disease? Prisons are not designed for accommodating walkers, wheelchairs and those who may have serious age-related illnesses.
Sociologists have been studying the problem for some time, and find a multitude of reasons. One finding was that elected judges are under pressure to be “tough on crime” so they will be reelected. Drug laws are adding to the problem. Draconian sentencing guidelines, and parole boards refusing to release prisoners who are no longer a threat add to the problem. This news article has a lede photo worth seeing, with the caption that asks if the inmate shown is still a threat to society.
Several years ago, I evaluated a prisoner who was scheduled for a parole hearing in the next few days. I reviewed his chart and found he had been given a life sentence for forcible rape in 1954. He was now 83 years old and in poor health. Two correctional officers escorted him to the interview, holding him by his elbows to keep him from falling. He used a walker, shuffling slowly into my office. He was alert and responded appropriately to my questions, but was frail and obviously in marginal health. I wrote my report and in my conclusions, observed that the chances of him committing another sex offense even remotely like his original charge was zero. A few days later, I got a call from the attorney for the Parole Board. She was insistent that my report was too vague, saying that I had to guarantee he would not commit any kind of sex offense at all for him to even be considered for parole. I pointed out to her that I could not guarantee he would not pat one of the nurses at the nursing home on the behind. That was not good enough for the parole board. They denied him parole. Later, I had a chance to talk with a member of the parole board. She said the policy of the parole board was to never grant parole to a sex offender. They have to flat time their sentences, despite the fact that a parolee can be monitored and have parole revoked, whereas they lose track of those who do have determinate sentences. She was not swayed by that logic, repeating that the board will never grant parole to a sex offender, even if they are terminally ill.
The old man I had interviewed died a few months after I talked to him. He passed away quietly in his sleep, still in prison. I suppose that now I can write a report guaranteeing that he will never offend again.
This issue is a ticking time bomb for the taxpayers. No one wants to pay for taking care of elderly prisoners. When I try to talk to people about it, they tend to brush it off with the cliché, “If they can’t do the time they shouldn’t do the crime.” The ACLU estimates the cost of caring for a prisoner older than 50 years is about $70,000. It costs about $35,135 to keep an inmate under 50.
As inmates grow older, they become needier, medically and physically, driving the cost up almost exponentially. A comprehensive study just published this month by the ACLU, At America’s Expense: The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly, shows the rising incarceration rate is driven by harsh sentencing guidelines, not increasing crime. You can read the executive summary at this link. Download the full report here (PDF warning).
Is there a solution? Why does one of the most industrialized nations in the world feel the need to imprison more of its citizens than the most populous countries? Even more important, why are we imprisoning the aged and infirm?
I encourage everyone to read the links and watch the video. The ACLU study is 98 pages long and definitely worth reading. The floor is open for discussion.
Mike Spindell 1, June 30, 2013 at 3:40 pm
“That is because the military is the one that brings us our “freedoms.”
So says the Wartocracy anyway (MOMCOM: Mean Welfare Queen).”
Dredd,
You are capable of better than this incessant flogging of your own blog by going off topic tangentially. It’s not ALL about you and I’m sure you can make significant comments about the topic at hand, even though you don’t have one of your own applicable blog posts at the ready.
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You folk here don’t realize the nature of the nation you live in except when it is forced upon you.
Next ot last time you jumped on me to shield OS was in a blog he posted glorifying an obvious pedophile he promptly deleted when reality overwhelmed the joint.
Last time you did it was an OS post glorifying the propaganda that has deceived those who think war is the source of freedom and death is what produces the feeling of sacredness within the bubble of the Glory Daze.
Then you fabricate some onerous clothing to cover up the nakedness and attack the messenger.
Typical of Stockholm Syndrome as I have pointed out time and time again (Stockholm Syndrome on Steroids).
I refer to my blog because it does not suffer the censorship that your warden software here imposes on everyone.
Also, I can refer to a wide range of sources without holding my hand up for one of the “I am great” biggies to give audience like what happens here when the “Pat Robertson Spam Control” software gets jiggy wid it.
That way I please those who want to stay blind, and those who want to inquire (nobody has to follow a link they don’t want to).
You are enraged at potential while you accept the chains and argue for the warden and the guards.
You have an earnest desire to suppress the free speech of others by calling their work “spam” or “flogging your blog” because you have been institutionalized to believe that commercialization is the root of all messages.
The U.S. is the Big Brother of the entire prison planet and this feel good diversion post about the prisons in the contiguous U.S. is utterly intellectually bankrupt about the global prison system those you grovel over have made.
It is so plain to all but the willfully blind.
Now we can have a decent conversation.
(Neo waves to the Smiths to come get it) …
Bruce:
Typical. All for supporting life before viable life begins, but a death advocate after birth.
Mike,
You inadvertently pointed out a large part of the problem: it is not on anyone’s radar unless you have worked in the prison/jail system. It simply does not occur to people this could be a problem. Our lawmakers are deliberately oblivious. They have no intention of spending money on prison inmates, no matter how great the need. The ultraconservative elements in Congress and state legislatures have already shown their true colors by putting an heroic effort into cutting unemployment benefits, trying to gut health care reform, cut Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, and on and on.
If they won’t fix bridges until they fall into the Mississippi River, why should we expect them to fix the geriatric problem in prisons? They don’t seem to have the same problem when it comes to funding projects the Pentagon doesn’t need or want, or spending money on travel for themselves.
You want to empty jails let a person protect his property with deadly force. one way to get rid of the bad actors
“That is because the military is the one that brings us our “freedoms.”
So says the Wartocracy anyway (MOMCOM: Mean Welfare Queen).”
Dredd,
You are capable of better than this incessant flogging of your own blog by going off topic tangentially. It’s not ALL about you and I’m sure you can make significant comments about the topic at hand, even though you don’t have one of your own applicable blog posts at the ready.
Chuck,
As you know I’ve dealt with the incarceration issue on more than a few occasions. Never once have I viewed it from this perspective and that is an omission not fully thinking the parameters of the issue through. This perspective of dealing with an aging prison population runs through the entire issue of crime and punishment. Already some of the comments on this thread have illuminated the issue even further and it raises many questions with which we need to deal.
Juliet N.’s: “especially when a good number of those folks — about 47%, at last tally — don’t care how poorly prisoners are treated.” raises the issue of the callousness with which almost half our populations views people in prisons. Some of that is misappropriated religious belief in the concept of sin.
Another aspect is a certain degree of racism and yet another is the lack of empathy promoted by many politicians.
Michael Beaton’s comment was thoughtful and superb, because it encompasses the entire range of the metaphoric “can of worms” you opened with this topic. Michael’s quotable issues strike to the heart of the conundrum that has become “crime and punishment USA” as in:
“When the “three strikes” syndrome was all the rage, did we actually consider the underlying causes of crime? And, for example, we certainly did not well consider the consequence of the policy of the “Drug War” – a major contributor to the incarceration rate. Or the function of “time” where all this human “debris” (as we actually treat our prison population in actual fact) would get old, and require exponential growth in the resources to maintain it?”
And further:
“And what we did not consider was the question of who we are as a nation, a society, as “America”. We don’t want to acknowledge that we tend to deal with problems not by solving them at their cause, but at their “effect” by creating “disposal” systems”
And lastly:
“The resolution has to begin with some basic common sense (like not treating 80yo as a threat) and then some uncharacteristic honesty. We have to come to grips with our great human condition – both the light as well as the shadows.
Have that conversation in terms of humility, mercy and basic dignity.”
Which leads to Steve Fleischer’s trenchant:
I agree with everything that you said, but I see more problems if we release old prisoners into society.
What do we do with them?
‘Very few prisoners have savings/wealth. After a long prison stint, very few ex-cons have any marketable skills. Older people face age discrimination – add a felony conviction to the age prejudice and you have a person who is close to unemployable.
Given that few criminals declared the proceeds of their crimes to the IRS, I suspect that most people in prison have very small social security accounts.
Releasing old prisoners may be an act of compassion, but are we condemning them to living under a bridge?”
This topic Chuck is exactly what this blog is for because it encompasses so much that needs to be brought into open discussion in America. I’m going to sit back for a while and enjoy this discourse because it in such capable hands and so far has gone beyond my own thought processes.
We also lead the world in abortions, are these counted as first day of life deaths? Stop letting them grow grey on death row! Let them out of jail the next day so the victims family can take revenge while their still pissed.
Most people on the Earth age.
Age is not related to prisons in any sensible way.
Most people of any age are not in prisons in most places.
But too many of all ages are in American prisons.
That is because the military is the one that brings us our “freedoms.”
So says the Wartocracy anyway (MOMCOM: Mean Welfare Queen).
Steve and Michael,
Thanks for the thoughtful observations, and you both went for the heart of the problem. Aging is not just an issue in prison populations, but in our society as well. Steve, your analogy with the problem of emptying mental health hospitals is spot on. In our area, one of the large state hospitals was closed, but the state did not provide for an alternative. The mentally ill literally have no place to go except mental health centers, and the Centers are not equipped to deal with patients who are not amenable to outpatient care. There is no long term care facility for the truly dangerous mentally ill.
It was also mentioned upstream about dental care, or more correctly, the lack of it in prisons. Prisons have dentists, but dental care is truly superficial. I cannot speak to all prisons, but can speak for ones I have either worked in or visited. Dental care in prison has only one solution. Pull the tooth. Have a cavity? Pull the tooth. Have a chipped tooth? Pull the tooth. Since pain medicine is not on the formulary at prison pharmacies, the patient who may have just had several teeth pulled is sent back to his or her cell with a non-narcotic medication such as ibuprofen or Toradol instead of Lortab.
Where will these people go? Something not mentioned yet is the issue of the institutionalized inmate. How about the old guy I interviewed. He has been locked up since 1954, and look how the world has changed since then. He would not have a clue on how to get along. In his case, had the Parole Board let him go, social workers from the state had arranged for him to go to a nursing home. Other prisoners, as pointed out, might not be so lucky.
The problem is not going to get better as long as we keep doing what we are doing. Anthony Marshall is 89 years old. He was just sentenced to prison for embezzling from his mother. The sentence is supposed to be not less than one year, nor more than three years. When one is approaching their 90th birthday, that could be a life sentence.
Steve Fleischer 1, June 30, 2013 at 2:23 pm
…
What do we do with them?
Very few prisoners have savings/wealth.
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In the last census we found out that about half of Americans have no assets.
So who is “we” in your “what do we do with them“?
Don’t you realize that “we” are the ones who plundered them?
Welcome to the new age of wee the prisoners.
See if you catch the lyrics “the prison bus” describing the extent of the prison:
Thank you for raising this issue. There are so many lines of discussion that emerge from this issue of prisons and the particular of the aging population.
You know you are dealing with a fundamental problem when, to unpack it, and deal with even the first level implications the scope of the response enlarges to encompass basic questions of identity (“Who are we as a nation ….” ), paradigmatic beliefs (in terms of this blog, those beliefs as enshrined in our constitution and law) , and a need to better understand the systemic nature of the cause and effect issues (ie, unintended consequences et al..).
When the “three strikes” syndrome was all the rage, did we actually consider the underlying causes of crime? And, for example, we certainly did not well consider the consequence of the policy of the “Drug War” – a major contributor to the incarceration rate. Or the function of “time” where all this human “debris” (as we actually treat our prison population in actual fact) would get old, and require exponential growth in the resources to maintain it?
And what we did not consider was the question of who we are as a nation, a society, as “America”. We don’t want to acknowledge that we tend to deal with problems not by solving them at their cause, but at their “effect” by creating “disposal” systems – or warehousing as JT puts it here. Sweep it up. Pile it up over there. “Abandon all hope ye you enter…”
In the terms of this case we must come to understand the nature of basic cause/effect. This being a comment to a blog post it doesn’t warrant a full on treatise, so I’ll assert in summary that the function of prisons (and by related extension : law, policy, society, community, property etc…) as we use them is seriously out of congruity with anything like a functioning society. (It is not too much of a leap to involve our “Christian Values” in this discussion as well. Real or imagined as they may be.)
So what is the answer to this problem? It isnt simply “release them”, get them out of the system… That simply compounds the problem by shifting it somewhere else. Like we did with our mental institutions…we did not solve (or even meaningfully address) the problem, we simply dumped it onto the streets.
The resolution has to begin with some basic common sense (like not treating 80yo as a threat) and then some uncharacteristic honesty. We have to come to grips with our great human condition – both the light as well as the shadows.
Have that conversation in terms of humility, mercy and basic dignity. From these predicates then we can discuss the issue in terms of cost, societal safety, risk, basic human dignity and so forth. And if we got real creative we might even at least acknowledge the precursors to the crimes as well.
~Michael
Otteray Scribe:
I agree with everything that you said, but I see more problems if we release old prisoners into society.
What do we do with them?
Very few prisoners have savings/wealth. After a long prison stint, very few ex-cons have any marketable skills. Older people face age discrimination – add a felony conviction to the age prejudice and you have a person who is close to unemployable.
Given that few criminals declared the proceeds of their crimes to the IRS, I suspect that most people in prison have very small social security accounts.
Releasing old prisoners may be an act of compassion, but are we condemning them to living under a bridge?
Many released prisoners will be forced to return to crime to feed themselves – with inevitable results.
Perhaps society is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
One finding was that elected judges are under pressure to be “tough on crime” so they will be reelected.
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I left a voice mail message volunteering to talk to the cops because I supposedly violated a temporary restraining order. In Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Total nonsense. The not-so-honorable judge called a twelve person jury trial. I was found guilty by a jury of my piers. They’re not my piers.
There isn’t any justice. There might be a judicial system, but that doesn’t mean it’s justice.
Think about it.
No problem! The American Taxpayer picks up the tab with profit for the prison industry. They do not care about anything but keeping the ride going.
It’s hard to get folks to support a movement to help prisoners, especially when a good number of those folks — about 47%, at last tally — don’t care how poorly prisoners are treated.
I read and believe that the rights of prisoners are under litigated and under discussed. I think that I am one of the few voices of former prisoners enabled because I was held illegally, with no charge and no evidentiary hearing or bail hearing. So therefore….
The entire prison systems needs to be continuously reevaluated. If the point it to deter crime than the point must be to deter recidivism rates. That means that they must be able to get along when they are released, they must be able to exist at an acceptable level without committing crimes.
Already there are stories of people robbing federal banks for the reason of getting medical care.
One big issue in jail is dental care. Most jails offer almost no dental care. It doesn’t help them get jobs on the outside if they are missing teeth and if they have tooth aches it isn’t going to make them any more amenable….
“Why does one of the most industrialized nations in the world feel the need to imprison more of its citizens than the most populous countries? Even more important, why are we imprisoning the aged and infirm?”
For profit prisons have powerful lobbying groups, druggies tend to be “low risk” inmates, and keeping the infirm in state prisons serves to keep them off the federal health care dime. Wherever there is a social problem, one can almost always follow the money to its cause.
OS, I call folks who asks someone’s expert advice on a matter, and then fails to follow said advice, an “askhole.” Sounds like there are many askholes in the system.
This is a very good topic and was well written. Stage Four Alzheimers and Stage 4 Retirement should not be in prison.
A follow up note for those who notice small details: The BoP logo was used as a representation and metaphor for all the prison systems in the US, both public and private.
“There are several areas where the US leads the world. We lead all industrialized nations in infant deaths the first day of life. We lead the world in illegal drug use. In addition, we lead the world in number of people incarcerated.”
U.S.A!! U.S.A!!
We also lead in most women and children killed by nukes.
We also lead in most taxpayer dollars spent on weapons of mass destruction (WMD), weapons of regular destruction (WRD), spying on friendlies (SOF), and spying on people the world over (SPOPWO).
Sometimes we also spy on enemies (SOE).
The world is beginning to see us as Peeping Tom Killers (PTK) with a large inventory of people we could torture if we get horny (PWCTIWGH).