The Corrections Reporter » Aging Population

FL Aging Inmates

Tammy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:18:33 +0000

Of the over 17,000 elderly inmates currently behind bars, 18.5 percent are in for robbery and violent personal offenses. Include sexual offenses and murder/manslaughter to that, those numbers sky-rocket, making up over 40 percent of elderly crime.

The state has no choice but to tend to their medical needs. Report by Fox10tv.com.

“It is a constitutional obligation to provide appropriate healthcare to our inmate population, regardless of their needs, and how expensive those might be,” said Gretl Plessinger of the Department of Corrections. “Forty-four percent our hospital days were because of inmates who are over 50-years-old. It cost about $53 a day to house an average inmate in the state of Florida. Of that $53, almost $12 goes into healthcare.”

That adds up to about $19,500 per year, per inmate, and they get pricier with age. According to the DOC, when an inmate turns 60, it takes an average of $70,000 to provide for them.

River Junction Work Camp

In Chattahoochee, Florida, many fit to give back to their community head to River Junction Work Camp .

“I’m keeping all the state vehicles looking as you can see quite well, nice and shiny, yes sir,” said inmate Jimmie Lee Kirkland.

Kirkland gets to do on the inside what was one of his favorite tasks on the outside – making cars look like new again. He’s serving five years for cocaine possession, but feels taken care of.

“They don’t treat like convicts or inmates; they treat us like we human beings like everyone else,” Kirkland said. “They don’t try to run us down or try to make us feel lower than we already are, they help us.”

Kirkland is receiving an education through River Junction.

Inside the facility, Edward Childress showed us how cells are traded for dormitory-style housing, which makes it easier to care for elderly inmates’ needs.

Childress, who’s serving 19 years for armed robbery, handles maintenance at the facility. He’s happy to be around his peers.

“With the senior citizens that are here at River Junction, we’re able to interact with each other on a calmer level, and I think the officers see that, and so they treat us accordingly to that,” Childress said. “So as far as the living conditions here, everybody gets along well. A prime example is one inmate can bump against another inmate here at River Junction and he’ll say, ‘Excuse me.”

Unfortunately, though, Childress and Kirkland are the minority.

Some of the state’s most violent offenders are taking the biggest portion of taxpayer money.

The Senate Steps In

By state law, criminals must serve 85 percent of their sentence.

The Florida Senate has tried changing that, offering programs which would release inmates early – if they could prove they’ve been rehabilitated.

The programs has failed every single time.

So the question is, do we set some inmates free, or lock them up for good?

“Floridians have to make a decision, and might have to make a decision at some point about the risks involved, and what they want to do, where they want to go from here,” Plessinger said.

Childress and Kirkland

Childress still has two years before he’ll return to his Pensacola family. He’s missed his children grow up.

When we spoke to Kirkland he only had 10 days remaining on his sentence.

“We call it the junction because it’s like a cross roads, if you make it to River Junction, you halfway there,” he said.

He was released Sunday, November 13.

Where we stand

According to the DOCA, Florida’s inmate population is on the decline, as they’ve been able to close a few facilities in recent years.

They say as attrition hits the regular inmates,the elderly prison population will start to decrease as well.

Ohio’s Aging Inmates

vericatrajkova — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:00:42 +0000

Ohio prison officials have spent more than a decade making plans to deal with its graying population – inmates who are slower, sicker and ultimately cost more money for medical care. The Cincinnati Enquirer has a long and interesting report:

They made up more than 12 percent of the system’s 46,501 prisoners last year, placing Ohio ahead of the national average of 8.7 percent. Prison officials predict that people 50 or older will comprise one-quarter of the state’s prison population by 2025.   And that’s not just because young inmates are getting old behind bars. State figures show that more and more people over 50 are committing crimes that are putting them into the prison system at advanced ages.     In 2001, 798 offenders were admitted to prison when they were age 50 and over. That number climbed to 4,450 in 2008.

Nearly 300 inmates in Ohio prisons are older than 70, said Terry Collins, who heads the state prison system.   “Our population is graying, which creates issues particularly from a medical standpoint,” he said. “Older offenders need to see the doctor more. They are involved in the chronic care clinics for various illnesses. You also have mental health issues, dementia. That becomes another concern.”    There are prescription drugs, hearing aids, walkers, special shoes, dentures, geriatric chairs and beds.

It impacts the budget each year. Last year, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spent nearly $199 million of a $1.8 billion budget on medical services for inmates. That’s a 7.7 percent increase over 2007.   Today, the overall average annual cost of an inmate is $24,590. That’s up from last year, when Ohioans paid $22,587 per inmate. About $3,800 of that expense was for medical services, according to state corrections data …

Nearly every one of the department’s 32 prisons has a geriatric ward of sorts – a cell block set aside for older prisoners who want to get away from the general population, Collins said.   “Some of these people have to have almost constant care,” Collins said. “We have to hire orderlies. I have inmates that push other inmates in wheelchairs because people can’t get around.” Age doesn’t necessarily dictate where inmates are placed. It’s more about how they get around.

Oregon Tackles Mental Health At New Prison

vericatrajkova — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:00:00 +0000

The Oregon Department of Corrections is planning to build a new prison near Junction City in which, officials say, severely mentally ill inmates would be dealt with far differently than has been possible before. As reported by the Register-Guard:

The 1,262-bed medium-security lockup just south of town would include 462 beds for mentally ill inmates — double the number at any of Oregon’s existing 13 state prisons. In addition, the proposed Junction City men’s prison would house up to 214 physically ailing, impaired and aging inmates. The medium-security prison is planned to open in 2014. It would follow construction of a 532-bed men’s minimum-security prison as part of the same correctional complex, due to open in 2012. Both are contingent on the 2009 Legislature’s approval of $350 million or more of bonds to pay for construction …

Never before has Oregon — nor, do its corrections officials believe, any other state — set out to build a prison that would primarily house inmates with serious medical and mental health needs …

Nationally, the cost of incarcerating an elderly inmate is three times that of a regular one, according to the National Institute of Corrections. Many of them are so impaired that they’re unable to climb stairs, clamber onto an upper bunk bed, or move around without the assistance of walkers or wheelchairs, said William Hoefel, health services administrator at the Oregon Department of Corrections. Williams said even middle-aged inmates present a medical burden on prisons. “A lot of these guys have done really horrible things to their bodies and preventative health care has not been high on their lists,” he said. “So a 50-year-old presents a lot more like a 70-year-old, for the purposes of the level of medical care we’re required to provide.”

The full article at the Register-Guard is long and detailed and worth the read.

State Cuts May Free Aging Inmates

vericatrajkova — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:00:17 +0000

Michigan DOC is considering the release of the sickest old inmates as a way to reduce the heavy cost of health care for this group.

By all accounts, Thomas Lee Ross has quietly served most of his life sentence for a violent armed robbery and kidnapping in Ann Arbor in 1974. Now – despite objections from a local judge and prosecutors – the 75-year-old inmate could be freed as part of a growing trend by the Michigan Department of Corrections to save costs by releasing prisoners. A hearing was scheduled in a Jackson prison hospital to help the Michigan parole board determine whether Ross is fit to return to society, despite his criminal history and severe dementia that has relegated him to the prison hospital for years. The hearing is the third and final hurdle Ross must clear to be considered for a commuted sentence by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said … Marlan said the department spends roughly $300 million of its annual budget on inmate health care, and more than $30 million on the 300 sickest inmates alone. Citing privacy concerns, Marlan said he could not provide details about Ross’ medical care or associated costs. But he said health concerns were the only reason Ross was being considered for release.