Old people in prison - consequences of harsh sentencing
Life sentences for drug dealing, life for "3 strikes" laws , and other laws that demand long term incarceration.
Makes you wonder - reminds me of that old George Burns movie Going Out in Style where 3 aging friends decide to commit a crime . Burns ends up in jail where he consoles his son that life isn't so bad in prison . He's got friends, health care, people to look after him, medical care, activities, people his own age, etc.
"Harsh sentencing policies, including mandatory minimums, continue to have lasting consequences for inmates and the nation’s prison system. Today, prisoners 50 and older represent the fastest-growing population in crowded federal correctional facilities, their ranks having swelled by 25 percent to nearly 31,000 from 2009 to 2013.
Some prisons have needed to set up geriatric wards, while others have effectively been turned into convalescent homes.
The aging of the prison population is driving health-care costs being borne by American taxpayers. The Bureau of Prisons saw health-care expenses for inmates increase 55 percent from 2006 to 2013, when it spent more than $1 billion. That figure is nearly equal to the entire budget of the U.S. Marshals Service or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, who is conducting a review of the impact of the aging inmate population on prison activities, housing and costs"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/05/02/the-painful-price-of-aging-in-prison/