Life without parole and Elderly Prisoners

The population in prisons are aging due to longer sentences, mandatory minimum sentences, three strikes rules, truth in sentencing laws, and get tough on crime reforms of 1980s and 1990s. When I read articles like the “Life without Parole” about the two teenagers that brutally murdered a stranger, I think that they will probably be [...]

Articles regarding elderly inmates

In reading the articles on aging prison populations I was not surprised to see that average cost per elderly inmate was around $67,000 annually, which is about three times the cost of a younger prisoner. I was surprised however, when I realized after reading that inmates do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid thus placing [...]

Elderly Release Debate

Placement of elderly individuals is becoming increasingly difficult as less space is available. So many prisons are full because the elderly take up a high percentage of convicts in prison. This is due to no parole or life convictions. As a result, money is being spent in order to build new penitentiaries for all those [...]

The Elderly in Prison and Recidivism

This week’s readings concern a topic that I have never really discussed in any previous Criminal Justice course before: the aging prison population. As a result of the movement to get tough on crime, prisons are now faced with a growing elderly prison population. The article “Aging Prisoners” makes mention of two specific causes borne [...]

The Struggles of an Elderly Prisoner

I believe that one of the most difficult tasks when dealing with elderly prisoners has to be the fact that so many of them are in poor states of health. A couple things factor into this, including poor health behaviors before being incarcerated, alcohol or drug abuse in the past, smoking cigarettes, lack of inactivity. [...]

Sonia’s Response to the Elderly in Prison and other thoughts

This week’s readings were fairly depressing. To begin, geriatrics in general in this country is not a focus of medicine as very few doctors choose to specialize in it. The principle stays accurate when applied to institutions like prisons and nursing homes as the populations of aged adults is overlooked and pushed to the back. [...]