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Fault Lines: Dying Inside: Elderly in Prisons
Richard W. Anderson
American Public University System
Professor Christopher Conley
CMRJ316
12 June 2015

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Abstract
This paper discusses issues involved with the growing numbers of elderly inmates in American
prisons. Prison populations have exploded due to enhanced sentences and a get tough on crime
mentality pushed by legislators. However, with the current problems associated with jail and
prison overcrowding, an aging prison population, and safety, just to name a few issues, many
people are asking whether or not many inmates should be released for reasons of compassion, in
that the elderly are more likely past the age of being a threat to society. Also, the cost to
supporting the growing number of elderly in prisons is unaffordable, particularly in a failing
economy. And, if prisoners are not to be released, improved accommodations to serve elderly
inmates must be considered.

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With the passing of get-tough-on-crime sentencing enhancements during the 1970s and
1980s, the result has been an increasing number of inmates today over the age of 55. These
elderly inmates require more in the way of health care than their younger factions, which
translates into higher costs to the tax payers in support of their needs. There is also a question as
to whether most of this aging inmate population is any longer a threat to society, and releases
with a sense of compassion is being considered by many. However, many family members of
victims of violent crimes may be reluctant to release their associated offenders, regardless of
how debilitated the inmate may be. Also, without economic prosperity bringing in enough tax
dollars to fund our prison systems, proper treatment for the elderly and mentally ill inmates is
falling short of affording adequate programs.

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The video presentation from Fault Lines: Dying Inside: Elderly in Prison program
graphically displays the problems dealing with America's aging prison population. Over the last
several decades, enhancements in prison sentencing have created an explosion of inmates over
age 55. Legislation demanding that 85% of a sentence be served before possibility for parole has
left many prisons with overcrowding of the elderly (Fault Lines). From 2000 to 2009, the
nation's overall prison population has increased by 16%, while the quantity of older inmates has
increased by 79% (Williams, Stern, Mellow, Safer, & Greifinger, 2012, p. 1475). And with this
aging population comes a much higher price to support each inmate; $70,000 per inmate
annually as compared with about $25,000 for a young healthy inmate (Fault Lines). Because of
a reduction in state budgets, facilities such as the Joseph Harp Correctional Center have to fall
back on asking their 10,000 volunteers to provide even more continued help in serving the needs
of the prisons; retired professionals and members of faith-based groups. Prisons are functioning
in what's referred to as warehouse mode; where there is little effort placed into rehabilitation, and
people are more or less stored in prison (Fault Lines).
With regards to health care issues, one problem solving technique employed by
Oklahoma's Dick Conner Correctional Center is to train inmates to take care of their disabled
inmates. Seth Anderson is one such individual. Imprisoned for kidnapping, drug possession,
and a firearms violation, Anderson now cares for his elderly inmate cohorts, and is of the mind
that inmates such as Sherman Parker, a 100-year-old inmate, convicted of murder when he was
82, should be released because he is no longer a threat. However, the family members of the two
women Parker killed years ago may have a different view, and who can blame them.

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The Fishkill Correctional facility 70 miles north of New York City has approached their
severely aged, physically and mentally impaired prison population by developing a unit
designated for these inmates with special needs. With an average age of 63 years, and many
suffering from Alzheimer's, this first-time televised unit has the appearance more of a hospital
than an institution for criminals. Dr. Sottile, the creator of the special medical prison unit,
attends these elderly patients, one of which has Huntington's Chorea; a physically debilitating
muscular disease which gradually gets worse to the point of not being able swallow, and death.
The underlying issues to the aging population in prisons, and how it relates to
correctional management, may involve taking a closer look at the level of security actually
needed for inmates over the age of 60, what each individual has learned over the years in the
form of contributory prison functioning, and how they can be involved in a transition institution
from criminal mentality to more hospice care functioning. A form of hospital-prison should be
developed which requires less security, more hospital and nursing care apparatus, and more
active inmate involvement in the running of the institution. If this is not possible, it is perhaps
feasible that new requirements for becoming a correctional officer may have to include a degree
in nursing care, or perhaps more medical staff being brought on board institutions in general.
One solution to working with the growing numbers of the elderly in prisons could be to
more closely combine a university education program along the lines of medical-correctional
professionals. The medical-correctional professional could be created from a degree path in
which students are required to learn both nursing and medical knowledge in general, as well as
appropriate correctional facility requirements. Positive impacts could be a more knowledgeable
correctional officer with compassion toward their clients, as well as creating thousands of new

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jobs for the young professionals. According to Dr. Satcher, the U.S. surgeon general from 1998
to 2002, correctional personnel should not have to be specialists in dealing with the mentally ill
(Schmalleger & Smykla, 2011, p. 412), but perhaps Satcher underestimates the abilities of
people to do well as both correctional officer and health care specialist. Also, a new type of
architecture may be developed by budding designers in that field to serve the needs of the now
all too common demented and physically debilitated inmates. The steps needed to implement
such plans might include a positive and more compassionate mass media campaign toward our
deranged citizens, as opposed to the fear-generated war on everyone mentality of today. New
university programs as previously mentioned should be addressed in American think tanks, as
well as further demilitarizing our current institutions, and reinstituting more programs for
rehabilitation might help. In addition, because of the newer and younger inmates coming from
street gangs, a push for education should be encouraged on a national level.
Skeptics may point out that anyone who breaks the law should be terminated from civil
society and face the obscene world of prison incarceration for decades; growing older, more
physically and mentally debilitated by the day, and endures the metamorphosis into a decrepit
crippled creature that once resembled a human being. But that sort of thinking comes from the
sadistic nature of the frightened and ignorant anal retentive people who created punishments
such as the cat-o-nine tails with fish hooks, burning alive at the stake, the rack, and the publicly
viewed use of the guillotine. Positive compassionate responses to all of our nation's problems
should be given higher priority than brutal thinking; but in the face of calamity, many people
simply do not think clearly, and look for revenge as opposed to treatment. Aging to the point of

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a drawn out diseased, mental, and physical collapse within prison walls appears to be one of the
more gruesome ways to live out one's winter years.

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References
Fault Lines: Dying Inside: Elderly in Prisons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvqj8hgxRfg
Schmalleger, F., & Smykla, J.O. (2011). Corrections in the 21st century sixth edition, New York,
NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Williams, Brie A,M.D., M.S., Stern, Marc F,M.D., M.P.H., Mellow, J., PhD., Safer, M., M.P.H.,
& Greifinger, R. B., M.D. (2012). Aging in correctional custody: Setting a policy agenda
for older prisoner health care. American Journal of Public Health, 102(8), 1475-1481.
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