Currently, there are more than 200,000 inmates in American prisons who are above 55 years (Reese, 2019). It is projected that by the year 2030, this number will have doubled. It is for this reason that various prisons, with the help of the American legal machinery, have been working hard to come up with ways to contain the bulging population. One measure that has been adopted is compassionate release. Compassionate release is the release of ill prisoners who have demonstrated good behavior over the period they have been incarcerated. However, lawmakers are opposed to compassionate measure. They reason that compassionate release is an insult to the justice system which is supposed to punish individuals for their mistakes. More so, they argue that when released, the inmates are likely to go back to their life of crime. However, what about the elderly inmates who are suffering from terminal illness? Should they be left to die just because they committed unforgivable crimes? These are questions worth pondering.
The United States spends a whopping $16 billion a year to take care of aging inmates (Reese, 2019). Some of these inmates suffer from terminal illnesses and end up dying before they finish their sentences for lack of access to quality healthcare. It therefore does not make any sense to spend a lot on prisoners who are likely to die. In the same vein, elderly prisoners are known to suffer from fear, anxiety and depression due to the uncertainty of their future. Hence, most of them isolate themselves form the rest of the prison population. If they are terminally ill, their situations are likely to worsen due to the loneliness they feel while in prison (Reese, 2019). as such, most of the elderly prisoners suffering from serious medical conditions should be released early to reduce congestion in prison as well as to let them access quality medical care.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The most serious impediment to compassionate release is lawmakers’ selfishness. The lawmakers insist that prisoners, no matter how old they may be, are a threat to society (Reese, 2019). While this may be partly true, previous cases of early releases indicate that recidivism rates by older adults are low and negligible. Hence, the law should not be used to deny prisoners the fundamental right of seeking for medical attention for their conditions. What is more, older adults are fragile and susceptible to various illnesses due to the harsh prison conditions. Hence, the more they stay in prison the more they become weak.
The advantages of compassionate release notwithstanding, it bears noting that it is tough for inmates, especially the old ones to have a soft landing spot once released. They may not have friends or families that are willing to take them in (Reese, 2019). Furthermore, some hospitals do not attend to former inmates even if they are dying. Therefore, while we advocate for compassionate release, we should also ensure that the elderly inmates have a place to stay and can access the much needed medical care once released. The other states can learn from Connecticut’s 60 West nursing facility (Reese, 2019) that provides a nursing home to elderly prisoners who were granted an early release due to their medical condition.
Compassionate release is not only a measure to decongest prisons, but also an act of mercy towards prisoners who are suffering in silence. However, while considering the prisoners to be released on compassionate release, prisons should ensure that the persons being released have demonstrated good behavior and are in a good frame of mind to grapple with the challenges of being an ex-inmate. Otherwise, by offering blanket immunity to all ill prisoners, prisons may be triggering a new wave of crime in the society.
References
Reese, H. (2019, July 17). What Should We Do about Our Aging Prison Population? Retrieved from JSTOR Daily: https://daily.jstor.org/what-should-we-do-about-our-aging-prison-population/
