General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums80-Year-Olds in Prison? Why America's Prisons Are Filling Up With Grandpas and Grandmas
http://www.alternet.org/80-year-olds-prison-why-americas-prisons-are-filling-grandpas-and-grandmasMore than thirty years ago, Mohaman G. Koti shot a police officer during a parking ticket dispute in which no one was killed. He is now in his late 80s and suffers from asthma and a neuromuscular disorder. He doesnt hear so well, either. Yet Koti, a well-known peacemaker behind prison walls, was denied parole every two years beginning in 2005 because New York State still considered him a risk to public safety. The state did this despite the fact that it costs, on average, twice as much to lock up a stooped grandfather with digestive problems as it does to hold a healthy young manand can sometimes cost as much as five times more. It was only last month, after many denials, that Koti was finally granted parole. He will re-enter the population just a few years shy of his ninetieth birthday.
Gloria Rubero, 64, was lucky enough to avoid this fate. She got released from prison before she became so old and infirm that her story took on the absurdist warp of Kotis case. But she quickly found that life on the outside as an aging ex-inmate had its own challenges. When she was sentenced to twenty-to-life for murder and robbery, we still called the Internet ARPANET; there were no smartphones or digital cameras, and CDs were considered cutting edge. Twenty-six years later she was released into an unfamiliar, wireless world. She had no drivers license, no birth certificate, no idea how to use a subway card, and the people who might once have helped her navigate these noveltiesfriends and neighborshad disappeared. In the lonely chaos of the free world, she often found herself longing for the security of prison.
People thought I was crazy, said Rubero, who had spent almost half her life behind bars by the time she was released. But inside I had a job. I got my education there, I knew a lot of people. I didnt have to think about rent, electric bills, credit.
These are just two stories from the front lines of the emerging crisis of Americas aging prison population. All across the United States, prison populations are graying, growing old and infirm behind bars. Between 1995 and 2010, the number of people in prison who are older than 55 quadrupled, and the numbers keep increasing. Today, nearly 16 percent of this countrys 2-plus million prisoners are over the age of 50, or elderly, as defined by the National Institute of Corrections. By 2030, a third of all inmates will be elderlyand many prisons may look a lot like nursing homes.
merrily
(45,251 posts)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption
Two of the characters had become institutionalized.
"But she quickly found that life on the outside as an aging ex-inmate had its own challenges"
It's a great movie for many reasons. Even if it had no plot at all, it would be worth seeing just for the acting.
mopinko
(69,990 posts)can't imagine how hard it is to make that transition.
we cant just dump these people on the streets. they need a halfway program of some kind, preferably focused on their unique needs.
imagine if you are sick, not old enough for medicare, but too old/sick to work. where do you go?
merrily
(45,251 posts)anymore.
Scrooge: Are there no prisons?
Benefactor: Plenty of prisons.
Scrooge: And the Union Workhouses? Are they still in operation?
Benefactor: They are. I wish I could say they were not.
Scrooge: The Treadmill and the Poor Law, they're still in full vigor, I presume?
Benefactor: Both very busy, sir.
Scrooge: Oh! From what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.
Scrooge: I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.
1st Benefactor: Many can't go there.
2nd Benefactor : And some would rather die.
Scrooge: If they would rather die, they'd better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
Same scene, in the best movie version, IMO, of A Christmas Carol:
mopinko
(69,990 posts)how we ended up here, i cant really grok. i mean, i know who did it and how, i just dont get why the torches and pitchforks arent out yet.
merrily
(45,251 posts)I have thought about this a lot. For one thing, picking up torches and pitchforks usually results in someone dying. Actually, a lot less than that. (Kent State.)
Things have to be pretty bad when death is a risk a civilian will take. Things had been very bad for that guy in Tunisia who self immolated over a few dollars that would have made the difference between his family eating that day or not, and not just very bad on that one day. That had been his life for a while and arbitrary and cruel police had made him give up all hope of improvement. Things have not been that bad in the US, at least not yet.
Besides, most of us believe we actually live in a democracy controlled by voting. As long as people cling to that illusion, they will not run out of hope that, if they only figure out how to do XYZ, things will get better. Either that, or they think "better" is impossible, anymore, no matter what. (New normal). So, what's the point?
The French court was in Versaille and the revolutionaries easily overcame the palace guard. Ditto the Tsar's security force. Wanna test what would happen if a mob tried to rush city hall, or a state house, or the White House? Or even David Koch's house?
Pitchforks don't do a lot against today's weapons--and we KNOW the militarized cops and the military will use today's weapons on us, if push comes to shove. We know that because they'ved used them on us, even if push wasn't within shouting distance of shove.
Russian revolutions failed until World War I convinced the Russian military to join the peasants. Notice any organized effort on the part of the left to win over cops and the military? And, with all the carefully cultivated and nurtured divisiveness between left and right, how do you think that effort would go, given that cops and military tend to lean right these days--firefighters, too. Their unions lean left, but the union members lean right.
The geography of the US is not conducive to organizing and massing across the nation. And, if we try, the NSA will make sure it's nipped it in the bud.
Etc.
Oh, and the only people unarmed and clueless about weapons will be most of the left, including me. That's okay for me because I would never try to hurt anyone anyway. Non violent bleeding heart liberal all the way. I couldn't live with myself.
My only equipment would be defensive. Then again, I keep talking about buying a bulletproof vest and I have not even done that yet.
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)that end.
merrily
(45,251 posts)esp. if they run openly under the Socialist name. Since the Russian Revolutions, the US and many other plutocratic nations have devoted many decades and may trillions, in both private money and tax dollars to fight that brand. That is a massive, massive obstacle for the Socialist name to overcome, esp. when Republicans think New Democrat Obama is a socialist. And people so shrink from the word "socialist" that they don't know the difference between "Democratic Socialist" and "Socialist."
As a lesser matter, the Republican and Democratic parties have made things very difficult for third parties. Nader pursued a lot of lawsuits around even getting so-called third parties on the ballot, but you can't force networks to include them in televised debates, which is fairly important in this age. In this year's gubernatorial race in Massachusetts for example, the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate again joined hands to exclude other candidates from televised debates. I think they made it into only the first debate after the primaries ended. After that, the Democrat and the Republican candidates sat side by side around a table with the debate questioners. When third parties just can't compete as to media buys, free TV is so very important and they get very little of it. (Can we spell dead "Fairness Doctrine?"
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)and the mechanisms are slowly being depoloyed but no one will be allowed to die as long as there is a penny's worth of profit yet to be squeezed out. Then it's off to the Soylent Factory or a pauper's grave.
merrily
(45,251 posts)no text
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)People serving life get old and sick.. no surprise..
daleanime
(17,796 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)people are being locked up for life sometimes for relatively minor crimes
blackspade
(10,056 posts)Tragically it is the poor and uneducated that are the wheat for the prison industrial complex.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)End life with no parole eligibility.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)It's also the best argument for ending the death penalty.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)but that is a different issue than whether anyone should ever be sentenced to life with no parole eligibility.
No one should ever be sentenced to life with no parole eligibility. But, parole is not automatic and if the paroling agency determines each time that the person is not rehabilitated and is a continuing danger to society, they won't be released.
And that is not the best argument for ending the death penalty. There are many better arguments. The risk of putting an innocent person to death, for example. A death sentence is vastly more costly than a life (even with parole eligibility). It is cruel and increasingly unusual. Etc.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Just the chance that some very hideous people COULD possibly walk around free one day would be used on TV, political ads, etc.
If the death penalty goes, the public will insist on Life w/o Parole...just saying.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)It won't be up for public debate.
And then the battle will be on ending Life w/o parole. Step by step.
Major Nikon
(36,818 posts)But I think you are right because there's just too many binary thinkers in the US.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)davidn3600
(6,342 posts)And private prison industry couldnt be any happier to oblige.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Someone is making a lot of money off that.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)anytime soon.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)which is the sad part. The change in laws for marijuana is a good start. Oregon's laws have gotten stricter over the last two decades some of which have passed from ballot initiatives. That combined with a lack of funding for any sort of rehabilitation makes it hard for anyone who has been locked up once they are released.
I think the rate of imprisonment is so high these days that most everyone knows someone who has been locked up at one time or another, present company included.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Now, it's "who cares what the crime, let the old people go"?
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)It will be noted with horror 200 years from now.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)I think the first step is ending the death penalty.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)not bad for a murderer
Panel 3, Successful Reentry of Returning Citizens
2:30 3:45
Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, NYC Department of Health and Human Services
Gloria Rubero
Sandra Pullman, Office of the New York State Attorney General, Civil Rights Bureau
Elizabeth Gaynes, The Osborne Association
Tina Maschi, Fordham University, Be the Evidence Project
Moderated by Annette Dickerson, Formerly of the Center for Constitutional Rights
A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO INCARCERATION: OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION CONFERENCE LIVESTREAMING JUNE 3RD AND 4TH
Posted on May 30, 2014 by Cameron Rasmussen
http://centerforjustice.columbia.edu/category/uncategorized/page/2/
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Initech
(100,036 posts)People are being locked up for literally no reason other than profit, while the real criminals like the Koch Brothers, Scott Walker, and Erik Prince continue to get off scot free.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)SheilaT
(23,156 posts)These days a lot more people are sentenced to life with no possibility of parole, even those whose crime is such that they are not a danger to the rest of the world. There are also those given very, very long sentences for whatever crime they've committed.
There's also a bullshit myth out there that people in prison get excellent medical care, which is rarely true. There are some real horror stories about people winding up dying from conditions that were eminently treatable.
So yeah, the prison system is going to have to staff nursing homes on site to care for their aging population.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)in Norwegian prison for his horrific slaughter, that being the maximum sentence for anything in Norway. Can't we find a happy medium where we judge these things on an individual basis?
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Many nursing homes look a lot like prisons. Minimum-security ones, to be sure, but the food and recreational opportunities are similar, and access to the outside is only marginally better.
calimary
(81,103 posts)because that's the only way to be sure of a roof over their heads, regular meals - such as they are, and at least minimal health care. I read a news story about that once. Little old elderly dude robbed a bank at gunpoint, then sat down quietly to wait for the police. He'd decided that was the only way to be sure of even nominally being looked after in his sunset years, because otherwise he was destitute.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)It says, 'access denied'.
kath
(10,565 posts)Children deserves to spend at LEAST
the 40 years part of his "life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years" sentence behind bars.
he should die there, the piece of shit.
dembotoz
(16,785 posts)what the hell is a long term inmate supposed to do when they get out
understand that they can not get such stuff as public housing
not sure about food stamps and such
with the joy of reagan in the 80's war on drugs....
lets say a 20 year old in 1980 would be just entering the old sphere now....