Elderly Prisoners

Although this is likely not a surprise for us who teach elder law, we are starting to see some reports about the “graying” of the prison population. (When someone is sentenced to life in prison without parole, that means the person will grow old in prison, right?).  So the New York Times featured an op-ed in the August 18th issue contributed by Jamie Fellner, senior adviser at Human Rights Watch. The piece, titled “Graying Prisoners” noted that the New York State Board of Parole was to hear the case of Anthony Marshall (the son of Brooke Astor) on his request for medical parole. The article provides a good discussion of the aging prison population, recidivism potential amongst prisoners who are elderly, compassionate or medical release  and the implications if sentencing protocols don’t change or compassionate release isn’t used. USNews on NBC.Com ran a story on the “exploding number of elderly prisoners strains system, taxpayers” covered, among other things, the increasing cost of care for those prisoners, the health problems experienced by many elder inmates, and potential solutions.

The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General–Evaluations and Inspections Division in the spring released a report on the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Compassionate Release Program in April of 2013. One more source on this topic is the GAO report from July of 2012 “Federal Bureau of Prisons: Methods for Estimating Incarceration and Community Corrections Costs and Results of the Elderly Offender Pilot” which followed up a GAO report in February, 2012 on Eligibility and Capacity Impact Use of Flexibilities to Reduce Inmates’ Time in Prison. 

Becky Morgan