ELDERLY: SHOULD THEY SUFFER IN PRISON OR SIMPLY BE RELEASED?
Karenna Cruz
American Public University System
This paper will explore the question of if the elderly imprisoned and in deteriorating health should reside in prison or be released. Should the government continue to house and pay the expenses of keeping the elderly incarcerated, or should they be released if they are simply near the end of their life and are unable to commit any further crimes?
The Concerns of Keeping Imprisoned Elderly Offenders Today, there are prisons across the United States of which house elderly inmates who can barely walk, talk, and function within their daily life without the help of prison employees or volunteers. Some elderly inmates cannot even remember the crimes they have committed due to developing dementia. Should these types of offenders really be forced to stay within the prison system and cost the states
For example, in Oklahoma, prisons are usually on lockdown due to the lack of enough officers to secure the prisons. The staffing is at only seventy five percent putting prisons on what is called a warehouse mode. This means that inmates are stored with minimum or no rehabilitation efforts. Within Oklahoma, paroles have no choice but to be deigned off by the government if they are to be set free into the community again. Because finances re so limited within these prisons, they were forced to come up with an alternative. A low cost solution that they have come up with is to have other prison inmates trained to be orderly’s to work in the infirmary. This allows these inmates to help in providing care for the sick and elderly patients within the prison. It is researched and studied and only about one in every three elderly inmates, return to
When envisioning a prison, one often conceptualizes a grisly scene of hardened rapists and murderers wandering aimlessly down the darkened halls of Alcatraz, as opposed to a pleasant facility catering to the needs of troubled souls. Prisons have long been a source of punishment for inmates in America and the debate continues as to whether or not an overhaul of the US prison system should occur. Such an overhaul would readjust the focuses of prison to rehabilitation and incarceration of inmates instead of the current focuses of punishment and incarceration. Altering the goal of the entire state and federal prison system for the purpose of rehabilitation is an unrealistic objective, however. Rehabilitation should not be the main purpose of prison because there are outlying factors that negatively affect the success of rehabilitation programs and such programs would be too costly for prisons currently struggling to accommodate additional inmate needs.
The United States Parole system has been the longest running form of rehabilitation of inmates that have served time in the prison system. Parolees are granted parole by a committee that feel like the individual is ready to function normally back into society; in which case most are “maxed out” of the system, meaning that there is no more room in the prisons and due to good behavior within the prison walls these are the prisoners that are paroled out. Caseloads are at an all-time high due to the fact that parole officers are over worked and under paid, therefore there it is easier for the ex-cons to re-offend due to the lack of supervision that should be taking place. More often are the parolees just being released into society without supervision
I believe that instead of incarcerating them they should be put in facilities that will help them get treatment for their disabilities, disorders, and drug addictions. If they are being rehabilitated the right way it will help prevent further crimes and also will help the offender go back into society and live a crime free lifestyle. For Christel Tribble being locked up actually helped her out to realize that she doesn’t want to be a delinquent. She was motivated by her mother to continue her education and to realize that it’s not worth being in the court system at such a young age because it will be a never ending cycle. For Keith Huff, he went to Kentucky State prison five times serving a total of 27 years in the criminal justice system. He was incarcerated for drug problems, which in the long run won’t help him. It would be more beneficial for him to receive help to prevent him from using drugs. If they sent him to a rehabilitation center where he can receive the appropriate help he need it would prevent him from future imprisonment. As for Charles McDuffie he was an addict and a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD. He was sentenced to prison, which was no help for him in his situation dealing with PTSD. He needed mental health treatment to help him deal with the tragedies that he was remembering from the Vietnam War. Luckily when McDuffie got out of prison his friends, who
In the 1970s, prison was a dangerous place. Prison violence and the high numbers of disruptive inmates led prison authorities to seek new ways to control prisoners. At first, prison staff sought to minimize contact with prisoners by keeping them in their cells for a majority of the day. As time went on, the prison authorities began to brainstorm the idea of having entire prisons dedicated to using these kind of procedures to control the most violent and disruptive inmates. By 1984, many states began construction on super-maximum prisons. In California, two supermax facilities were built by the state: Corcoran State Prison in 1988, and then Pelican Bay in 1989. The federal government soon followed suit and in 1994, the “first federal supermax opened, in Florence, Colorado.” It was not much longer before supermax prisons could be seen all over the country (Abramsky). In Wisconsin’s supermax facility, with similar conditions being found in a majority of supermaxes, there are “100-cell housing units” that are in groups of 25 cells. These cells all face a secured central area. Technology plays a major role in keeping the facility to the highest security standards. Every cell’s doors are controlled remotely and the cells include “video surveillance, motion detection and exterior lighting” (Berge). With these technological securities, there are also procedural precautions. Inmates are kept in their cells for 23 hours a day until their sentences are done. This is said to be for prisoner and staff safety, although some feel otherwise. In 2001, 600 inmates at Pelican Bay went on a hunger strike, demanding reform. Those on hunger strike believed that the isolation and deprivation they faced was against their Eighth Amendment rights. ...
Prisons and correctional facilities in the United States have changed from rehabilitating people to housing inmates and creating breeding grounds for more violence. Many local, state, and federal prisons and correctional facilities are becoming more and more overcrowded each year. If the Department of Corrections (DOC) wants to stop having repeat offenders and decrease the volume of inmates entering the criminal justice system, current regulations and programs need to undergo alteration. Actions pushed by attorneys and judges, in conjunction current prison life (including solitary confinement), have intertwined to result in mass incarceration. However, prisoner reentry programs haven’t fully impacted positively to help the inmate assimilate back into society. These alterations can help save the Department of Corrections (DOC) money, decrease the inmate population, and most of all, help rehabilitate them. After inmates are charged with a crime, they go through the judicial system (Due Process) and meet with the prosecutor to discuss sentencing.
Life seems to get busier and more hectic as each generation passes. As generations continue to age, a common dilemma arises that must be resolved: whether or not to put their aging loved ones into a nursing home. Nursing homes have become excessively more popular as the elderly continue to have longer life expectancies. Nursing homes at first were only for those who were poor and had no family to care for them, but now has become an option for families who simply cannot sacrifice the time and effort to care for their elderly loved ones. Morality and ethics is a huge factor in the difficult decision, which many moral factors are considered. In order to analyze how to effectively decide whether or not to put an elder in a nursing home, two theories
(Old behind Bars the Aging Prison Population in the United States). Incarcerated elderlies need special treatment; they cannot depend on themselves anymore. They are too old and too sick to move. Sixty-three year old inmate, Bruce Harrison, said “I get dizzy sometimes when I’m walking...One time, I just couldn’t get up”. (Story Sari Horwitz). Is it really good idea for an elderly inmate with health problems to be in prison? There comes a point where illness prevents a human to commit anymore crimes, therefore having an ill elderly in prison is just costing money for taxpayers. A different approach can be taken. Assessments of different kinds can be developed in order to assess the illness and evaluate if the inmate is a threat to society. If the inmate is not a threat due to their age and/or illness, then by all means the inmate should be released, this way taxpayer’s money can be saved. At this point in an elderly’s life, they have done most of their time. There are cases where the inmate has a terminal illness and it is just costing money for the taxpayers.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Everyone knows that you can’t help someone unless they want to help themselves. When the prison system was first established, the possibilities in rehabilitation were nothing like they are today. They could make prisoners go to daily consueling, have small groups, write in journals, plant flowers…maybe even go to yoga classes or have meditation time so that they could become one with their inner spirits and realize the error of their ways.
In prisons today, rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution are all elements that provide a justice to society. Prisons effectively do their part in seeing that one if not more of these elements are met and successfully done. If it were not for these elements, than what would a prison be good for? It is highly debated upon whether or not these elements are done properly. It is a fact that these are and a fact that throughout the remainder of time these will be a successful part of prison life.
“The motto of the DOC is care, custody, and control, and the DOC tends to slide toward custody and control. Care is often viewed with some suspicion” (Penrod). Inmates in a state prison become wards of the state, and while they don’t have access to privately funded healthcare, they do have a constitutional right to tax-payer funded healthcare. For aging prisoners this cost is very high. The 2012 Report by the ACLU states “Because of healthcare and physical needs that prisons are ill-equipped to handle, each aging prisoner on average costs taxpayers $68,270 per year—approximately double what it costs to incarcerate an average prisoner” (2012). Because the elderly prison population is increasing, the demand for prison healthcare is increasing, leading to more costs and, eventually, higher
Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means of punishment.
In the United States of America today, prison life is becoming worse as the years pass by. Offenders are steady re committing crimes even after initial release from prison. This has become a huge problem for the government of The United States of America and all of it’s residents. We must take different approaches to the way we imprison our inmates so that after their sentence is done, they are less likely to become a repeat offender. Different countries around the world, like China and the Phillipines, use different tactics to make sure that their prisoners are less likely to return.
With the substantial increase in prison population and various changes that plague correctional institutions, government agencies are finding that what was once considered a difficult task to provide educational programs, inmate security and rehabilitation programs are now impossible to accomplish. From state to state each correctional organization is coupled with financial problems that have depleted the resources to assist in providing the quality of care in which the judicial system demands from these state and federal prisons. Judges, victims, and prosecuting attorneys entrust that once an offender is turned over to the correctional system, that the offender will receive the punishment in which was imposed by the court, be given services that aid in the rehabilitation to those offenders that one day will be released back into society, and to act as a deterrent to other criminals contemplating criminal acts that could result in their incarceration. Has our nations correctional system finally reached it’s critical collapse, and as a result placed or American citizens in harm’s way to what could result in a plethora of early releases of inmates to reduce the large prison populations in which independent facilities are no longer able to manage? Could these problems ultimately result in a drastic increase in person and property crimes in which even our own law enforcement be ineffective in controlling these colossal increases of crime against society?
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.
Prison within the society in America has sharply veered towards the idea of mass incarceration. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) is a criminal research group that reports on the quantity of people in the United States that are in the prison system, and in 2014 “PPI reckons the United States has roughly 2.4m people locked up, with most of those (1.36m) in state prisons” (J.F. 1). This number is cause for concern when compared to a study of recidivism released among thirty states in 2005 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) According to BJS, “About two-thirds (67.8%) of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within 3 years, and three quarters (76.6%) were arrested within 5 years” (BJS 1). The concern is that rehabilitation programs in the United States are not effectively working to introduce an inmate into the general population. The reason inmates are typically repeat offenders is because the United States focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation. While rehabilitation methods do exist, they are not the focus within American prison systems, the ones that do exist are more geared toward manual labor and teaching trades. While this an effective means to teach a skill, this style of rehabilitation fails to address the ideas of empathy, accountability, and effective social interaction. The main focus of prisons in the United States is to maintain order in an inherently hostile environment so that inmates may ‘serve their time.’ The focus should be placed on educating inmates instead of strictly punishing those who are incarcerated.