The Pros And Cons Of Aging Prison Population

Aging prison population: The needs and current situation

Currently, prisoners aged fifty years and older represent the largest population of people in, already overcrowded, correctional facilities. Three of the biggest issues for the elderly behind bars are medical issues, health issues, and safety issues. The current situations in procession are inmates who apply for compassionate release, but because of politics this is overlooked and the ranks of elderly inmates have swelled by 25% to nearly 31,000 from 2009 to 2013. Because of this heightened number, some prisons have needed to design geriatric wards and hospices. These soaring numbers of the elderly in prison not only affects the prisoners, but the average American taxpayer as well for the Bureau of Prisons saw health-care expenses for inmates …show more content…
There are however many states revising their policies to help alleviate this, for example, “The Louisiana House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it easier for older inmates to obtain parole. The increasing number of older inmates, combined with efforts to reduce prison populations, has resulted in an increase in older inmates being released. (Yeager,2012). However, each case is different, there are those elderly inmates who do not have informal support from the outside world, in addition to those inmates who may prefer to stay within the prison system because the outside world may seem too alien for them, these inmates may be part of the recidivism issue. We have to be aware that for some “older adults the challenge of reintegrating into society is often compounded by the difficulties associated with aging” (Yeager, 2012). There are many advocates for the “compassionate release program” which according to The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons states elderly inmates who are sixty five years old and older and suffer from any form of chronic medical condition associated with aging in

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