Elderly persons are people whose ages lie between 50 and 65 years. The National Institute of Correction recommends the adoption and classification of persons with minimum age of fifty years of age as being elderly. The number of older inmates is approximately two hundred and forty-six thousand in America, according to the Treatment Center for Substance Abuse (Treatment, Center for Substance Abuse). The high population is directly attributed to the basis of fifty years as a minimum age for consideration.
The first challenge that correctional agencies faces relate to administrative roles, which are directly attributed to the increasing number of elderly inmates. These challenges include the unclear definition of old age, providing staff training for the older offender program, financing the old inmate's programs and planning their release. The two-strike and three-strike legislation bring stricter measures to offenders; the offender, after sentencing, has to serve a majority of their sentence. The introduction of sentencing philosophies such as life without parole and three-strike laws were not designed to increase the inmate’s sentence but they were initially enacted to send a message to the society that crime is not tolerated and reduce crime levels (O'Hear & Wheelock, 2015).
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Secondly, prison systems experience impediments to quality service to elderly inmates, which often emanates from the lack of trained staff. The trained staff are responsible for the identification of signs of ageing and offering of special care to the old appropriately, as most of the elderly inmates have access to handicap cells. However, the increase in elderly population in the prison facilities limits their space and makes it hard for their survival. For instance, the old persons who use the wheelchair have limited mobility, as the institutions do not provide sidewalks. Besides, most of the elderly inmates have chronic illnesses, which have substantial cost implications for the prison system, as they need hearing aids, glasses and many other advanced specialty items (Joann, 2001). Furthermore, the older inmates are often in need of assistance in the performance of their daily activities like moving around, which is not in the roles of the prison staff.
The estimates of cost per year for a 50-year old inmate is sixty-eight thousand dollars, and when these elderly inmates live to eighty years old, their cost estimates are projected to two million dollars per year according to the Treatment Center for Substance Abuse (Treatment, Center for Substance Abuse). The federal Bureau of Prisons spent to a tune of eight hundred billion dollars to incarcerate the elderly inmates in 2013. Moreover, the Bureau of prisons and the prison administration do not have adequate funding to cater to the needs of the elderly because of their increase in number. The team has limited training about how to handle the ageing population of inmates because of inadequate training fund.
When the limited parole and three-strike legislations were enacted, they did not bear much consideration for the economic and social effects they had on the elderly inmates who were serving more extended sentence periods. The three-strike law means that if the offender bears two first qualifying felonies, they are to serve a minimum sentence of twenty-five years and whenever they are convicted of the second felony, the term is doubled. The two-strike and three-strike laws were enacted for lengthy prison terms for the most violent offenders who are convicted of serious crimes. The mandatory sentencing laws were passed to deter the violent offenders in the society through the deliberate use of long periods of incarceration. It is a principal contributor to the increase in the number of elderly inmates, as the young inmates grow old in incarceration.
In conclusion, the legislature did not consider the statistics of the old population in prisons when they introduced sentencing philosophies such as life without parole and three-strike laws. The number of elderly inmates is steadily increasing because of lack of proper measures to enforce the release of the young inmates before they grow old. It shows that the younger generation entering the system in their early ages is being held for long periods as they are caught up in mandatory laws of sentencing and the new habitual laws; these laws hold them until they grow old.
References
Joann, B. M. (2001). Implications for corrections of an aging prison population. Corrections Management Quarterly, 5 (1), 78. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/214564154?accountid=8289
O'Hear, M., & Wheelock, D. (2015). Imprisonment inertia and public attitudes toward "truth in sentencing". Brigham Young University Law Review, 2015 (2), 257-305. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/1758116158?accountid=8289
Treatment, Center for Substance Abuse. “Chapter 6-Special Populations.” Continuity of Offender Treatment for Substance Use Disorders from Institution to Community. , U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1998, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64378/.
