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When 69-year-old Betty Smithey was
released
from Arizona State Prison last week after serving 49 years for
murdering a 15-month-old child, walking with a cane, she gave a face to a
population that often goes unnoticed -- the aging men and women in our
prison system.
With some 246,000 men and women over 50 in America's overly stretched
prison system, should we as a society consider releasing the fragile,
the ill, and the dying among these prisoners?
In theory, we already have. Compassionate, medical, or geriatric
prisoner release laws have been around since the 1970s in the U.S. But
the reality is that while such programs currently exist in 41 states,
they are rarely if ever used. From 2001 until 2008, Colorado
released
just three prisoners under its compassionate release policy. Oregon has
never released more than two prisoners per year and as of 2009,
Maryland and Oklahoma had never released a single prisoner under their
geriatric release provisions.
The reason behind such sparing use? Politics. Public opinion is often
against such programs and their narrow eligibility criteria and
complicated bureaucratic procedures (including a lengthy referral and
review process) often deter prisoners from applying in the first place.
In the meantime, our elderly prisoner population continues to grow at
an alarming rate, forcing our correctional system to act as a
nationwide long-term care facility -- something it was never designed to
be.
Historically, the U.S. legal system approach to incarceration has
ebbed and flowed between two attitudes -- compassionate and punitive. In
recent decades, stricter sentencing laws and the resulting long-term
confinement of older adults have produced nothing less than a morally
and financially expensive humanitarian crisis.
In the United States, current estimates suggest that older adults
cost about three to five times more than their younger counterparts. The
average annual cost of care for the typical prisoner
is approximately $5,500.
From ages 55 to 59 however, that price tag doubles to $11,000, and it
goes up nearly eightfold for prisoners aged 80 and over, to $40,000.
Many of these prisoners languish behind penitentiary walls in an
environment designed for younger more healthy inmates. The culture of
gangs and violence typical to prisons is particularly hard on the
elderly. Even the most basic of activities, such as walking at a steady
pace or dressing oneself, can be difficult without assistance --
something not every prison has the budget for or enough well trained
staff available to provide.
But what about public safety? Offenders who reach old age present
lower levels of danger to the public and are less likely to recommit
crimes, compared to their younger counterparts. A recent American Civil
Liberty
report
documented low rates of recidivism among older people, including those
convicted of violent crimes. Some are too ill even to remember their
crimes, or no longer have the capacity to commit a crime. The use of
risk assessment programs can also be used to determine the level of risk
to personal and public safety, screening out those considered still a
danger to society. These combined characteristics bolster the argument
for alternative sentencing and the leveraging of compassionate release
programs for older adults in the criminal justice system.
Once released, community service agencies including hospitals,
community health centers, nursing homes, and hospices, will need to open
their arms to this population, especially the terminally ill nearing
their end-of-life.
Yes, the associated financial costs will transfer to other agencies
and organizations - but at least these organizations are equipped to
assist the elderly. By releasing non-violent elderly prisoners into
their care, we can prevent the bankrupting of our collective budgets and
of our collective souls.
Deciding what to do about an aging prison population is complicated,
not to mention a bureaucratic mess. But we can no longer afford to
ignore it. We must consider the dignity of every person -- including the
imprisoned.
It is time to open our blind eyes and impoverished hearts and hear
the cries of agony and misery of our fellow human beings with mercy and
forgiveness. In the words of Buddha--"To forgive is to set a prisoner
free and realize that prisoner was you."
Tina Maschi is a Public Voices Fellow with the Op-Ed Project.
For more on aging in the criminal justice system, see here.
