Keeping prisoners incarcerated for life ends up costing more than a life’s savings
A 37-year-old Californian man is found guilty of murder after a trial by jury. He is sentenced to life in prison without parole. Justice has been served. And that’s the last the majority of the public will probably think about that prisoner. But, what most people don’t think about is the same 87-year-old prisoner 50 years from now and how that prisoner will grow old and eventually die behind bars.
While the above situation is only an example, it is a very realistic scenario that raises some interesting questions. How much is spent on the health care of prisoners and how can we reduce that cost?
Elderly on the rise
While there is no single source of data to show the exact number of elderly prisoners, it is known that older prisoners are the fastest growing segment of prisoner populations (NPR, 2010). According to USA Today (2007), “the soaring number of aging inmates is now outpacing the prison growth as a whole.” In fact, statistics show that, “inmates in federal and state prisons age 55 and older shot up 33% from 2000 to 2005, the most recent year for which the data was available. That’s faster than the 9% growth overall.”
“To give you an idea of that growth,” says Jonathan Turley, Director, Project on Older Prisons, George Washington University, “in Virginia, you have just one prison reporting that they had 900 [elderly] inmates in 1990, and today, they have 5,000 that would fall into this category” (NPR, 2010).
An anecdote that should also be taken into consideration is that the “actual number of physiologically older prisoners is greater than what you would consider in the chronological sense” (NPR, 2010). This means that prisoners age faster due to the stress of prison life, lack of nutrition and an overall unhealthy lifestyle.
How much do older prisoners cost?
In terms of economics, prisoners over the age of 55 often cost two to three times the amount of younger prisoners and on average, 67% of older prisoners have at least one disability (NPR, 2010). To make matters worse, prisoners are not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare.
Let’s take a look back at the scenario in the introduction. The felon began serving his life in prison without parole at the age of 37. For now, he costs taxpayers roughly $49,000 a year but that’s only until he reaches the age of 55. Around that age, his health care expenses will increase and could cost the state $150,000 a year to keep him in prison. If this prisoner lives until he’s 77, he will have cost the state of California approximately $4 million to keep him in prison for life (Fry, 2010).
Of course the cost of imprisonment varies from state to state, but this helps one realize that keeping someone in prison for life costs a staggering amount of money.
Some possible solutions
Part of the reason the United States is seeing such a steep rise in the older prisoner population is due to the life-without-parole sentences that were given out starting in the 1980s and '90s (USA Today, 2007). So fast-forward to today and most of these prisoners who were between the ages of 20 and 40 when they were sentenced are becoming geriatric.
One possible solution is simply to release older prisoners. It’s understandable why this solution is unpopular with the public. Despite the potential amount of money it could save states, this act contradicts the whole “life in prison” sentence.
Another solution is to move older prisoners to lower security prisons meant specifically for aging prisoners. Because approximately 50% of prison costs are spent on guard salaries and benefits, this could potentially save millions of dollars (NPR, 2010). These lower security “geriatric wards” often look and feel more like a hospital than a prison but are more adept to provide the needs and care required for older prisoners.
One more option is to offer alternatives to prison. Instead of sending an older offender to prison for crimes such as drug use, send them through a drug rehabilitation program to fix the problem and saving money in the process.
