The Cost of Aging Prison Inmates

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The issue with aging prison members is that our legal system spends a majority of the money on our older inmates than our younger members. The three-strike rule in the United States is a big factor on why we have such a high rate with older inmates in our prisons. We imprison older members for life after they have committed more than three felonies regardless of the crime. That leads to our legal system being stuck with a lot of aging inmates. Our legal system has to pay more money in order to accommodate our older inmates because they require more medical needs. The Criminal justice system is spending a significant amount of money on our elderly sick inmates even though they are unable to commit any more crimes, leading to more problems in the system.
Since most states have cracked down on criminal behaviors the population among prisons has risen in the last decade. In some prisons the population has risen as much as six times “The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, with 756 prisoners per 100,000 of the population”(Turner). Our aging inmate populations in our criminal justice system older than fifty are more than likely to have up to three chronicle diseases while incarcerated. The criminal justice system is spending three times the amount on older inmates. Having aging inmates in our criminal justice system has huge consequences because our system does not have a big enough budget to be able to house aging criminals with their needs. The aging criminals in prison our sucking our system dry because they are not actually paying for their crime that they committed but instead getting benefits for committing crimes. According to Aging Inmate Committee if our legal system would release our older inma...

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...ing our society or not helping a hard working American?

Works Cited
ADAY, RONALD H. "Aging Prisoners' Concerns Toward Dying In Prison." Omega: Journal Of Death & Dying 52.3 (2005): 199-216. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Regan, Judith J., Ann Alderson, and William M. Regan. "Psychiatric Disorders In Aging Prisoners." Clinical Gerontologist 26.1/2 (2003): 117-124. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Turner, Mary, Sheila Payne, and Zephyrine Barbarachild. "Care Or Custody? An Evaluation Of Palliative Care In Prisons In North West England." Palliative Medicine 25.4 (2011): 370-377. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Williams, Brie A., et al. "Aging In Correctional Custody: Setting A Policy Agenda For Older Prisoner Health Care." American Journal Of Public Health 102.8 (2012): 1475-1481. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

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