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| Low Risk, High Cost: Should Non-Violent Elderly Inmates be Released Early? |
| By .nebraska.tv/story - Nina Harrelson |
| Published: 05/15/2013 |
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Nebraska's prisoners are rapidly graying, requiring more medical attention and taxpayer dollars than ever. "The baby boomers are aging and our inmates are aging, but unlike the general population when inmates come to us, 80 percent of them have a history of substance abuse, 31 percent of them are diagnosed with mental illness," Steve Urosevich, chief operating officer of health services for the Nebraska Department of Corrections, said. "They do not have the type of care that the general population has received prior to becoming incarcerated. They usually don't go to a doctor regularly, so they're in a poor state of health when they come to us." This, coupled with the harsh reality of life behind bars causes inmates to age faster than the average person. "Clearly it seems that those might be people who — whether with an ankle bracelet, whether with regular meetings with a parole officer to keep tabs on them — that their likelihood of posing a risk to society is greatly reduced," ACLU Legal Director Amy Miller said. "Again, studies show us that and common sense shows us that — that the elderly are just not as likely to be the source of where crime happens." Read More. |
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