Geriatric Prisons

Institutionalization as it refers to inmates is when inmates have served so much time in prison, they are unable to function in the world once released. Inmates become dependent and use to the way of living behind bars after being in prison for so many years. In prison they tell you when to wake up and go to bed, when to shower, when to eat, when you have free time, and when you can come out of your cell and when you have to go back. This becomes a normal life to most of these inmates. From my knowledge and what I have seen from some prisoners once they have spent so many years institutionalized, once they get out of prison they do not know what to do with themselves, so the end up committing a crime for the reason of hoping to return back

These women need regular medical surveillance even for the minor things. According to Cynthia Chandler and Carol Kingery, “The dramatic increase in imprisonment in the United States has been accompanied by epidemic rates of HIV among prisoners. Moreover, women currently incarcerated in the U.S. suffer disproportionately higher rates of HIV infection than do free people and male prisoners.” These women need counseling and therapy especially if they have cancer, HIV/ AIDS, or mental illnesses. This neglect can be extremely fetal. Many women have already died because of this; we do not want the numbers to increase. Proper treatment is necessary.

The graying of the nation’s inmates is also an issue which continues to swell the cost of health care within the prison. According to the Pew Center, “…between 1992 and 2001, the number of state and federal inmates aged 50 or older rose from 41,586 to 113,358.” Older inmates are gradually making up a larger proportion of the overall count. While one may say that aging decreases criminal activity, such as those that result from communicable diseases mentioned from the previous paragraph, there are many more factors that should be considered. One problem is that older inmates are often preyed upon by younger, stronger inmates; therefore, older inmates may require special housing. Hearing and visual

The following pages contain information on the AIDS and HIV epidemic within the United States prison system. The characteristics of these inmates will be discussed and how well this population adjusts to the environment. There are some treatments and services provided to these inmates in and outside the walls of the prison. The public views are not very friendly, but the criminal justice system is trying to make it easy for the inmates to return back to society with help on how to cope with the disease.

The inspiration for this question was inspired by a popular TV show called, “Orange is the New Black”. Being based on a true story, I decided to look deeper into the correctional system and focus on the elders who are locked up. Piper Kerman, the author of the book on which the show is based on stated, “The rights of a prisoner are so few, so

The United States judicial system needs to make changes if they expect to control the prison population. One may assume that there is not a problem with the inmate overpopulation at the numerous prisons throughout the country, but one thing most of the prisons have in common is prison overcrowding. Geriatric offenders are the reason for prison overpopulation in the United States due to its inmates living longer, receiving longer prison sentences, and the lack of concern in which the judicial system has towards its elderly prisoners.

The challenges of the elderly prison population are mostly cost related. Due to the fact that as baby boomers throughout the nation have begun to age the prison population in the United States has aged as well. For example, the elderly prison population in 2003 was almost 10 percent and in nearly a decade later the elderly prison population doubled. A 2014 analysis by the Urban Institute posits that this increase in the elderly population could carry significant financial costs. When comparing the elderly population to that of the general population, they tend to experience accelerated ageing caused by things such as substance abuse and any other unhealthy choices in lifestyle. Also, according to this report by the Urban Institute elderly prisoners

In the US, the number of incarcerated people in the prison systems cumulatively will form the fourth largest city in the US by population. This serves to underline the importance of addressing the issues that affect the prisoners and the other employees of these correctional services. The first issue that is affecting the success of the correctional services provided by the prison services is the congestion in the prisons. Most of the prisons in the United States were built a long time ago and with the increased population of imprisoned offenders, their capacity to handle prisoners has been greatly overstretched. An example of overstretched prison facilities is in the state of California where the state has been forced to transfer its prisoners

Although elderly inmates are receiving health care while they are institutionalized, they are not always receiving the proper health care that is needed. The overwhelming increase in the elderly prison population has caused challenges to health care administrators. According to Kuhlmann and Ruddel (2005), not only do elderly inmates have common illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, dementia or other diseases that one undergoes as they age, elderly inmates are also affected by transmissible diseases due to overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, or unprotected sex. Health officials also have a problem treating elderly patients who are at the top of the list for being attacked by other inmates. Even if an elderly inmate is healthy when processed into the prison system, the stressors contribute to the declines in physical functioning ensuing in amplified health care. Kuhlmann and Ruddel (2005), states the only way that elderly inmates can receive proper health care is if public health practitioners and jail administrators launch an improved long-term

While there are many arguments from supporters for why long term confinement is expectable punishment for the inmates in prison, most popular reason is that it allows prisoner to reflect back on their crime and their victim, which in turn is supposed to aid in the rehabilitation process. But multiple studies and long term data collected across the country have proven that it’s simply not true. Based on information collected by the state of Connecticut (Tsui. 2), inmates who spend time in solitary confinement during their prison sentence were 92% more likely to be rearrested within three years compared to 66% of inmate who were not subjected to such treatment, while information from Texas shows that inmates who were housed in isolation units

I am in favor of the transfer of juvenile to adult court, however, depending on the crimes that were committed. If the juvenile committed a violent crime, then they should be held liable as an adult. Any other crimes, for example petit theft or just disorderly conduct should stay in juvenile courts, since rehabilitate services might be more appropriate in these circumstances. The one thing that needs to be remembered is that adult prisons are way different than juvenile detention centers. Juveniles are the face of the future, and in some cases rehabilitations and treatments might be needed, and in adult prisons, these treatments will obviously be different. So as mentioned before, I believe that in some cases the transfer of juveniles to adult

would still need a consent from their treating doctor and a record of inmate’s medical history. Inmates who aren’t being treated well in prison would be transferred to hospitals for proper treatment (Reed and Lyne, 2000).

Over the last thirty years the number individuals held in the United States Prison system has been growing rapidly. Numerous studies have found that the prison population that is growing most rapidly is the elderly population. For the purposes of this paper, the term aging and elderly population will refer to those who are incarcerated and are over the age of 61. As the number of elderly inmates continues to increase the number of stressors put on both the correctional system and the individual. In general, the correctional system faces a significant amount of financial stress in attempting to care for aging inmates, where as the inmates themselves face more emotional and physical stressors of aging, chronic illnesses, and even dying in prison. This paper aims to examine the stressors faced by the system and the individuals, as well as alternative options to continuing the incarceration of aging and elderly individuals.

The issue with aging prison members is that our legal system spends a majority of the money on our older inmates than our younger members. The three-strike rule in the United States is a big factor on why we have such a high rate with older inmates in our prisons. We imprison older members for life after they have committed more than three felonies regardless of the crime. That leads to our legal system being stuck with a lot of aging inmates. Our legal system has to pay more money in order to accommodate our older inmates because they require more medical needs. The Criminal justice system is spending a significant amount of money on our elderly sick inmates even though they are unable to commit any more crimes, leading to more problems

The American correctional system is facing many emerging issues. One of these issues is the exponential increase in aging offenders. In the past few decades, the number of geriatric offenders incarcerated has multiplied at an increasing rate. This essay addresses the issue of aging offenders in the correctional system; the problems that these offenders create and the underlying issues related to the aging prisoner population as they relate to correctional management. This essay also proposes a solution to the problem.