Put the elderly in prison.

[trumad]

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Oops.

[xfundy]

2. Very true.

And an hour of sunshine most days.

[WillyT]

3. K & R !!!

[madinmaryland]

4. Hmm. We have the half of the prisoners in for non-violent drug offenses, and we are spending

a trillion dollars a years on wars and the military. Hmmm.

[Zorra]

5. And don't forget! Prison guards make about $15k a year more than the sweetheart who takes care

of granma, and the prison guard gets a sweet benefits package, too, while granny's caregiver is hoping and praying that Obamacare will cover the hernia operation for the hernia that s/he got from transferring granma from her bed to her wheelchair.

[Heather MC]

17. Nursing Home Aides make minumum in my hometown

[underpants]

6. Very funny and very apt

[Glassunion]

7. Where do prison assaults and rapes fit in to this graphic?

[TexasTowelie]

34. It's called an active social life.

Plus friends with benefits.

[merrily]

38. There have been nursing home beatings and rapes.

[littlewolf]

8. I never saw inmates have access to computers.

worked DOC for 10 years.
it is sad that inmates get better treatment then the elderly
that needs to be fixed.

and the sweet bennie package, never saw that either. another
reason I left.

[Scootaloo]

9. As a former nursing home employee, I can surely say most are not as described

The ones that are, however, are definitely bad.

I loathe the "prisoners ought to suffer" line of thinking as well... everyone should be given decent treatment.

[Live and Learn]

29. +1 nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

33. The United States thinks Justice = Revenge.

[Scootaloo]

37. We're a primitive society with high technology n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. We are the only country in the world that starts a bar fight with,...

"Yew sound lak one o' dem college boys."

[jmondine]

10. But the elderly are too feeble for slave labor

How do you expect the Prison Industrial Complex to make money from that?

For-profit prisons: One of the worst ideas in the long, sad history of bad ideas.

[eppur_se_muova]

35. I know there had to be a reason for it !

Thanks for that ray of clarity.

[bayareaboy]

11. Well if you have to do time ...

Go Federal.

I worked at two Fed Prisons and at the first one, my first job was getting rid of the ten pontoon boats for the lake, the lake had to disappear as well.

Tricky Dick was doing something at the time. I never understood what.

[Downwinder]

12. From experience, the food is better in the local lockup than

at the senior center.

[Curmudgeoness]

13. Well, that has always been my retirement plan.

When I can't survive on my own, I plan on robbing a bank.

[tech3149]

15. I'll beat that!

I'm just going to rent the fastest car I can and find someplace I can hit a solid structure at high enough speed to assure I don't survive.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. That beats me.

I'm too chicken to pull that one off.

Just don't do it too soon.

What a shame that we treat our pets better than we do our elderly and suffering.

[RebelOne]

23. Good idea.

I am having a hard time now surviving on Social Security. So I guess if I get really desperate, I may have to resort to that.

[Curmudgeoness]

45. At least you are fed and have a bed.

I hope that it doesn't come to this when I retire (without any pension and with as much as I have been able to save, which isn't nearly as much as I will need since you can't save too much on low wages), but I have a constant fear of becoming a bag lady in my elder years.

Hence, the pre-planning for retirement emergencies.

[merrily]

39. May I recommend Bermuda?

The women's prison has an ocean view.

When I saw it, during a tour of the island, I decided that would be my retirement plan.

Maybe we can eve have a DU meet up there some day!

[Curmudgeoness]

46. Hey, that sounds nice.

So.....we only have to make sure that we don't spend every penny we have prior to resorting to crime. We will need the travel money to get to Bermuda.

Now, if the "exercise yard" is the beach, I might go to Bermuda sooner.

[meanit]

14. Sorry, but bullshit

The elderly are being treated like shit in many cases, but the contention that prisons are "country clubs" with free everything is absurd.

[tech3149]

22. Agree with you

I've worked in both correctional facilities and nursing homes. Neither are great places to be. There are good and bad in both but neither are one are places you would want someone you love to have to spend any time.

[Live and Learn]

30. +1 nt

[totodeinhere]

18. Most prison inmates don't have it very good either. That graphic overstates

by a mile the amenities that most inmates get. Of course nursing home residents should have better conditions. But to make that point we shouldn't try to make prison life look better than it is. That's intellectually dishonest.

[steve2470]

21. agreed

I'll take the worst nursing home in the country over the very best prison in the country hands down. At least in the NH you have freedom. Prisons and jails suck, for all but the extraordinarily person who dislikes freedom.

[Boom Sound 416]

19. I'll take my chances in the nursing home shower

Thank you.

[postatomic]

20. This is a diluted comparison

But it's still relevant. I've been locked up and I have a lot of experience with Nursing Homes (volunteer stuff). I'd still take the Nursing Home over Prison. Both have issues that need addressed. We treat the elderly like pond scum and most just want them to go away.

[SCVDem]

24. In response to the GOP and their cutbacks

How about a few hundred thousand elderly getting arrested and blowing up the system?!

Cut healthcare will ya?

Wait until they get a load of this!

[Tanuki]

25. Why settle for prison? Try the Holiday Inn or a cruise ship!

http://www.snopes.com/travel/trap/retire.asp

[SheilaT]

26. I am somewhat offended by this.

The small amount I know about prison life it is not that good. Yeah, some of our nursing homes could be a lot better, but still.

[99th_Monkey]

36. +10 good point. nt

[merrily]

40. Have you ever read A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift?

[SheilaT]

48. Yes. And somehow this just does not

feel like first class satire. What it feels like is ignorance about what it's actually like to be in prison and what real nursing homes are about.

[KentuckyWoman]

27. No. Just no.

-I totally understand the sentiment and agree the end of life options most people have are an embarrassment. But prisons are awful places that are also a shame upon our collective heads.

[Ed Suspicious]

28. These graphics are usually not about treating the

Elderly better, but rather they are about treating prisoners worse. I find that idea repugnant.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

31. They won't let you hoard junk in prison.

Save old instant coffee jars, rotten hatboxes that are fifty years old, pie tins, plastic sacks.....

I can watch Hoarders for about ten minutes, then I get flashbacks from dealing with my crazy packrat mother.....aggghhhhhhhhh!!!

[ConcernedCanuk]

32. I almost went that route - prison

.
.
.

Was surviving (not really living) on $500/ month in a trailer up to 6 months ago.

No hydro, no running water, not even an outhouse.

Made all sorts of applications, welfare, disability (one arm pretty dysfunctional) - every other social assistance outfit I could find to no avail.

My problem - what crime to commit? - Not a violent person, small town, what to do?

I spent a short time in jail decades ago - jail does not frighten me, at least not here in Ontario.

Quit smoking, ate better, and was in better health when I got out.

Library cart came around each day, so books to read (this was long before the internets) - tv to watch until lights out at 11pm,

clean clothes every 2nd day, shower whenever I want, 3 meals a day -

Anyhow - as I was considering to go in prison for a survival mode,

a totally unexpected inheritance allowed me to buy a home outright, and put enough money in a trust fund to guarantee me a comfortable, not luxurious, but a decent income for the rest of my life.

So I totally get the thrust of the OP -

Prison can be pretty nasty for pedophiles, hard-timers like murderers and so on, but if the offence is not a violent one, you don't get "hard-time" - like supermax or anything.

Years ago, I knew homeless in Toronto that knew the law well enough to break some small law to get jailed for a few months over the winter.

Homeless, Poor, Elderly, Disabled etc. does not = stupid.

I got very lucky just in time imo.

Most do not.

CC

ps: Good Post!

[merrily]

41. I thought everyone understood satire.

Some of the responses to this thread taught me that I was wrong about that.

That's why I enjoy DU. I always learn something here, whether I want to or not.

[DiverDave]

42. OOOH,OOOH,OOOH, Take me...

I need dental work done, I have no insurance and need oral surgury.
Pretty freakin sad that I have to go to jail to get healthcare.

[raccoon]

44. This sounds like something a right-winger would come up with, as if all prisons were country-club

prisons.

I have two relatives and they are in nursing homes with most, maybe all, of the amenities described in the first paragraph.

[KamaAina]

47. "and pay rent at $4,000 a month"

That's the crux of the matter. And for many, that $4,000 a month comes from Medicaid, that is, from us.

That $4,000 a month would be much better spent on home- and community-based services that would allow the elderly to age in place. But the nursing home lobby won't permit that.