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| Aging Calif. Prison Population Called 'Ticking Timebomb' |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/18/2003 |
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Unless something changes, there will be nearly 50,000 elderly inmates in California's prison system in 20 years, a 'ticking time bomb' that could cost the state more than $4 billion a year. That's about the same as the entire current budget of the nation's largest and costliest prison system, a national prisons expert said February 25. The state's 'horrific' recidivism rate, aging population, budget problems and three-strikes life sentencing law will combine to create 'crippling' overcrowding and budget-busting costs in the next decade, predicted George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley. 'California is looking at a prison crisis that is the most severe in the nation,' said Turley, executive director of POPS, the Project for Older Prisoners. State corrections officials acknowledged the coming flood and their lack of preparation in testimony before a joint hearing of three Senate committees. The state's prisons now hold about 6,400 inmates over age 55, a population that will grow to about 30,200 by 2022, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. Older inmates will jump from 4 percent to 16 percent of the total prison population at current rates, the office projected. Turley's study put the California population of inmates over age 60 at 47,647 by 2024, with a $4 billion annual cost. Both he and the Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said older inmates are two to three times more costly to care for and statistically much less likely to re-offend if they are released, citing other states and federal studies. Both said inmates age faster than the general population, and have a higher likelihood of diseases and other health problems often due to their prior lifestyle. But releasing such inmates early is not the only answer, said experts and lawmakers. Of the 6,400 current older inmates, Hill recommended 250 elderly nonviolent and non-serious offenders be released to save the state $9 million. But within 20 years, following the same guidelines would mean an estimated 12,000 fewer inmates and $530 million less annual cost. The crime is no less serious just because the criminal has aged, countered Larry Brown, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association: 'The state budget problem should not be solved by jeopardizing public safety.' Even Turley cautioned that, 'if that's your only (relief) valve, you're going to release people you shouldn't release,' though he thinks the analyst is undercounting the number who could be freed with no danger to society. Other states have found they can cut costs without early release by incarcerating elderly inmates in a single prison with onsite health care; housing such low-escape risks in minimum security facilities; using electronic bracelets to monitor inmates at home or in nursing homes; and converting surplus institutions to elder care more cheaply than building new prisons. 'California lags far behind other states in dealing with its older prisoner population,' said Turley, who offered to set up a California POPS office to evaluate inmates and suggest reforms. He started the nationally recognized program in 1989 after representing a single elderly inmate while a professor at Louisiana's Tulane Law School. POPS since has opened additional offices in Michigan, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia, and its volunteer law students have done studies for other states. California corrections officials acknowledged in their Senate testimony that the state is lagging in its elderly care and planning. 'We can't even tell you what (elderly) people are in what prison, unless we do a hand count,' said Youth and Adult Correctional Agency Secretary Robert Presley, who blamed a lack of money. The California Department of Corrections considered establishing a geriatric prison in 1999, but officials said the older population has since outgrown any single penitentiary and so remains scattered in the general prison population. A 1999 study by the department listed older offender programs in 22 other states, and recommended setting up a task force to develop similar programs in California. Four years later, the task force still hasn't been created, and Presley and other officials said they don't know why. |
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