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Aging Prison Population Sends Health-Care Costs Soaring
Submitted by Matt McKillop via The PEW Charitable Trusts,
In a year when the nation’s overall prison population dropped, the number of older inmates grew rapidly in 2014, continuing a trend that translates into higher federal and state prison health care spending.
New federal data show that from 1999 to 2014, the number of state and federal prisoners age 55 or older increased 250 percent. This compares to a growth rate of only 8 percent among inmates younger than 55, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which also reported that the U.S. prison population fell in 2014 to its lowest level since 2005. In 1999, inmates age 55 and above—a common definition of older prisoners—represented just 3 percent of the total population. By 2014, that share had grown to 10 percent.
Like senior citizens outside prison walls, older inmates are more likely to experience dementia, impaired mobility, and loss of hearing and vision, among other conditions. In prisons, these ailments present special challenges and can necessitate increased staffing levels and enhanced officer training, as inmates may have difficulty complying with orders from correctional officers. They can also require structural accessibility adaptions, such as special housing and wheelchair ramps. For example, in Florida, four facilities serve relatively large populations of older inmates. These units help meet special needs, such as palliative and long-term care.
Additionally, older inmates are more susceptible than the rest of the prison population to costly chronic medical conditions. In 2011-12, for example, 73 percent of state and federal prisoners age 50 years or older reported to the Bureau of Justice Statistics that they had experienced a chronic medical condition such as hypertension, arthritis, asthma, or diabetes, among others. Younger inmates age 18 to 24 (28 percent) or 25 to 34 (41 percent) were much less likely to have reported such a condition.
All of these challenges create additional health and non-health expenses for prisons, which are constitutionally required to provide adequate medical attention and respond to the unique needs of these inmates.
The National Institute of Corrections pegged the annual cost of incarcerating prisoners 55 and older with chronic and terminal illnesses at, on average, two to three times that of the expense for all other inmates. More recently, other researchers have found that the cost differential may be wider.
In May, the Department of Justice’s inspector general found that within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, institutions with the highest percentages of aging inmates spent five times more per inmate on medical care - and 14 times more per inmate on medication - than institutions with the lowest percentage of aging inmates.
At the state level, a July 2014 report by the State Health Care Spending Project, a collaboration between The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, found that states where older inmates represented a relatively large share of the total prisoner population from 2007 to 2011 tended to incur higher per inmate health care spending.
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Prison is a good place to go if you can't pay your medical bills. Great place to retire.
we shoudnt be spending anything on prisoners health
Bernanke and Yellen are both over 55, right?
One can dream.
Amazon/Ebay body parts warehouse
blacks are expensive in or out.
But very cheap and easy to make.
Why the heck would you spend money to keep someone who's in a wheelchair in prison?!........unless someone was making alot of money by doing it.
I'm thinking something a little harsher than prison for those two and their ilk. But first I want some moar of grandma Yellen's delicious cookies.
Prison is for the little peeples.
Medicare and three square meals a day....a Senior's luxury retirement oasis
sarc off
And there's no Obamacare $5,000 deductible!
I am fairly certain someone will say that about you when you are rotting away in some decrepit FEMA camp after the fall of the Empire when they are rounding up all the 'suspected' (ZH) dissidents.
just sell your body parts, hell most have no problem with that today
Two words for this problem, "Downward Departure".
Set them all free in Nova Scotia, I say, and let them fend for themselves.
we shoudnt be making prisoners out of innocent people
America with 4.4% of the world's population has more than 25% of its prisoners. Welcome to the gulag named the land of the free.
Incarceration rate in the land of the free is about 740 per 100,000 compared to about 50 in Japan and Sweden and about 30 in India
They hate us for our freedumb.
I have no problem with paying for prisons for real criminals.
But some schmuck who blew .003 over the limit at a DUI checkpoint? Somebody caught with a small amount of narcotics? Not interested in spending my money to keep somebody like that behind bars. Hit 'em with a fine, slap an ankle bracelet on them or something (which they pay for out of their own pocket) and call it a day.
Fuck the fines and the ankle bracelets.
No credible victim, no crime.
I know most would disagree, but if you don't want to be in prison then -----maybe don't break laws??? Silly stupid me!
Are you arguing that the US is not an overcriminalized society?
boy, your going to deep for me here today 130 min before happy hour!
There are about 350 million people in the U.S. give or take. On avaerage, 1 to 3 % of those peope are no good fucking savages and deserve to be locked up so they are unable to steal, rape, rob, or murder. It does not take a math major to see our prisons are under populated. Wall street alone should have at least 5-10,000 people locked up tomorrow for the rest of their natural lives.
How many laws have you broken today? I'll bet you broke some that you didn't even know existed.
ah, none, & if you don't like them, change them the voting way otherwise follow them to remain jail free - not really brain science but today who knows!
I skipped lunch today. Can you remind me how that steak tastes in the Matrix? That would help.
The average "law abiding" american commits three federal felonies a day.
I spoke with my criminal attorney -- not that I need one, but I'm notorious for contingency planning -- about defense costs. If it goes to trial, you're usually looking at $100K. There's your reason 99% of cases plea out, right there. You can be completely innocent, and if you don't have 100K, you're going to prison, completely at the discretion of your local county prosecutor.
We're in a police state. 99% of "problem" people can be sent away at the whim of the government, and plenty of non-problem people who are easy to manage (if you're running a for-profit prison, who do you want in your beds? Mellow non-violent drug offenders caught with six ounces of pot or hardened members of MS-13?) get put away because they generate revenue for the people involved. Remember the single biggest contributor against marijuana legalization campaigns are prison unions and private prison corporations.
Everyone in this ecosystem has a financial incentive for there to be as many laws to be broken as possible. I guarantee in the current legal environment you and everyone reading this can get nailed for a felony at will.
I think you might have meant " misdemeanors"?
noun, plural felonies. Law. 1. an offense, as murder or burglary, of graver character than those called misdemeanors
Is fraud still a felony? How about assault? Might want to check your language it might be hateful speech.
>>>The average "law abiding" american commits three federal felonies a day.
Absolutely correct.
If they convicted me for some (old) low-level, non-violent activities, I'd be looking at 800+ years in the slammer.
And that's just for violations I know about.
It's illegal to spit on the sidewalk in Virginia.
On the other hand, the US does have one of the highest rates of violence in the world.
Next to Guatemala and Honduras.
A government program will fix this.
obamacare.
problem solved.
Yes thats right its the prisoners , not your president...
Perhaps we shouldn't have so many people incarcerated for non-violent and/or victimless crimes? Just sayin'...
What is a victimles crime? Honest question...
Gambling, recreational drug use, and sometimes, prostitution...
I'm sure there's a longer list out there.
Victimless crime= political offense
Victimless crime = violation of just about any law enacted in the last 100 years.
Real crimes have have been illegal for centuries.
The Fed is good at printing more money to buy debt/Treasuries. Then making it disappear.
Can't we just pay for everything including debt, bailouts etc. with computer clicks? forever?
None for Erwin Schiff. Brutal prison state.
Why don't we put more doctors in prison, then they can trade care for smokes?
And any older people not in prison are in prison; jailed with: un-affordable healthcare, cut pensions, S.S. tied to jiggered phony inflation figures, higher prices for everything, and kids and grand-kids asking them for money or room and board.
Assets being bled out at a record pace to feed the corporate prisons, insurers, supplemental insurers, Wall Street, Banks, and the out-stretched palms in Washington .gov. Amurika!
Time for some early paroles...
"I've seen 'em come & go & I've seen 'em die. And long ago I stopped asking why"
~Johnny Cash
It's all good. Healthcare adds to GDP, so we ought to be seeing a spike in the economy any time now. Maybe we should put everyone in jail.
I mean...ummm...like....China has these prisons where.....like the inmates sleep above factory floors.....and...ummmm......like during the day they...like....come downstairs and do cool s*&t...like...ummm...put Apple comupers together. Kind of like vampires in reverse. Like... I hear they even get paid enough to like....ummm..pay for their health care.
Now where did that choom wagon get to. I hear that..like...if you spend enough time in the choom wagon, you can....like...get to be Prezdent of the Youniteed Stats.
So you don't just have to suck a dick it's got to be an old one at that! Fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. lol
They will just thin the herd through poor diets and lots of sugar intake.
ONWARD!!!
This is good. About 80% of people in prison are there for victimless crimes, i.e. crimes against the state. These inmates are unjustly confined. At the rate freedoms are evaporating and the police state is growing, a nontrivial number of us may well join their ranks before we die. At least we'll have all sheeple outside working extra hard to pay for our health care.
Well isn't this fucking depressing.
But, but aren't they on Obamacare. Do they have the silver or gold plan? How much do they pay for their "insurance"?
Actually, prisoners are exempt from the ACA. Plan B for those in the know.
i bet you can get fucked up off all the presciption drugs in jail..........they hand that shit out like fucking candy ...................ive seen dude in jail so fucked up off oxy he didnt even know what state he was in.................this crack head had his finger cut off by his drug dealer..........said his drug dealer froze it in the freezer over $800
We have the Best Legal System in the World, bar none.
Having said that, there are Two Fundamental Problems in Our Legal System:
First, we have lost the Principle that The Punishment Must Fit the Crime; too many Crimes are Punished Too Severely; and Too Many are Not Punished Severely Enough.
Secondly, and more importantly, we have lost the Critical Fundamental Constitutional and Libertarian Principle that Government Only Has the Right to Regulate and Penalize Conduct that actually Harms Another.
Period.
With the exception of Sedition and Treason, the Government exceeds its brief Regulating and Punishing conduct that many loosely describe as "Victimless".
Ultimately, this is not the purview of the Judiciary, Prosecution, or Police; rather the "The People" to rectify.
When the Citizens neglect their Rights AND Duties, this is the result we have, and will continue to have unless and until such Rights and Duties are exerted by a sufficient portion of The Citizenry.
Our Founding Fathers told us long ago that "We Get The Government We Deserve."
Indeed.
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Promise kept.
That's my retirement plan. If I still have a car I'll save up a bunch of parking tickets, refuse to pay them, and go to jail for unpaid fines (depending on the state, it could be for years). If I don't have a car, I'll have to rob a bank or something.
But if they keep printing stuff like this, some bright young thing in the prison system will decide to release most of the old geezers early and force them to live in cardboard boxes on the sidewalk. Shhhhhh!!!!