Lisa Lesyshen: Release the Elderly in Prison

The elderly in prison creates unique challenges for the criminal justice system,  including higher medical costs and the need for special housing and programming. CDOC’s  reluctance to release elderly incarcerated people is troubling. State prisons have become nursing homes with bars, and states are increasingly being charged with watching over geriatric prisoners in facilities that are not equipped to care for them.

In the past 10 years, the proportion of inmates over the age of 50 has increased from 3,492 to 3,682 in Colorado, a 5.4% increase, while the general inmate population has decreased from 22,382 to 17,260, a decrease of 22.9%. [FY 2022 statistical report]

Over the past three decades, the population of individuals serving life without parole in the U.S. has increased a hundredfold. [Gottschalk] Many states’ medical spending has eclipsed $100 million annually due primarily to the extensive care of elderly inmates who pose little risk of committing new crimes. During this time of budget constraints and high inflation, one way for states to help with their budgetary shortfalls is to create achievable elder parole and Special Needs Parole programs to cut down on the number of elderly incarcerated people.

There are more people serving life in prison than were serving any sentence in 1970. The increase of people serving life in prison has been driven by policy changes and revisions to laws that made sentences longer and parole limited. These policies have created aging prison populations in institutions not designed to care for them.

The number of people serving life imprisonment in the United States is higher than the total of 113 countries combined. [Sentencing Project] 203,865 people are serving life sentences in the U.S. As of 2020, in Colorado there are 1048 individuals serving life and life without parole and there are another 1716 individuals serving term-of-life sentences of forty years or greater. The state will be fiscally responsible for housing, feeding and providing medical care for all these people. [Denver Law Review]

“You look at all these variables of offending and age is by far the most powerful predictor,” said Marcus Kondkar, a sociology professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. Recidivism research demonstrates that age is a significant predictor of reoffending with arrest rates dropping to 2% in people aged 50-65 and almost to zero for those older than 65. [At America’s Expense by Inimai Chettiar]

Nationally, the percentage of older adults in prison has increased dramatically. From 1993 to 2013, the number of people aged 55 and older in state prisons increased 400 percent. State policymakers have learned from national research that the cost of incarceration of older adults doubles that of younger people due to health care expenses. [It’s about Time by Tina Chiu] The average cost of housing an individual in CDOC is $46,866 annually and the cost of housing people in the infirmaries is double that at $88,785. These spiraling expenditures do not result in substantial gains in public safety because people of an advanced age pose a low rate of offending.

In CDOC, there are two infirmaries to house the very ill. DRDC and Territorial have infirmaries that serve both male and female patients. Territorial infirmary has been closed since October 2022 due to a black mold infestation. Presently, DRDC is completely full with 47 patients. There are 8 women patients, 10 permanent male patients and 29 male patients. The facility is experiencing a staffing shortage so there are usually only two nurses to care for 47 patients. One of the fundamental problems with CDOC medical care is the lack of appropriately qualified staff and shortage of staff. Paul Patterson, the HSA for DRDC, has told the medical staff that two nurses is adequate for medical care in the infirmary.

Hospitals, in general, use the metrics of four patients for one nurse. The nurses, according to HSA Nicole Price, are only responsible for handing out medications, changing bandages and putting in IVs. Now most of the medical care falls on OCAs who are not always trained in chronic acute medical care.

As a minority in the infirmary, women are locked down for 22 hours and are not allowed to walk the halls and are prohibited to move around in order to gain physical strength. This is cruel punishment and penalizes inmates for being female. Presently, there a two gentlemen who received Special Needs Parole but they’re been required to stay in the infirmary for over a year because they do not have anywhere to go.

Under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, states are obligated to provide adequate medical care for the people they imprison. The Eighth Amendment does not entitle inmates to receive high-quality medical care, of course. Yet, the health care provided to people while they are incarcerated must reflect basic common decency. The medical care that people receive at the infirmaries is grossly inadequate and dangerously substandard.

Special Needs Parole is relatively rare in the state of Colorado. There are many challenges that limit the effectiveness of Special Needs Parole. According to Justin Dash, the case manager in charge of Special Needs Parole, 906 people applied for Special Needs Parole in 2022 and only 17 received it which is a 1.8% acceptance rate. Special Needs Parole and Clemency provide narrowly circumscribed opportunities for release and could help reduce the number of older and infirm people in prison.

Inmate Brenda Mumford, who was 65 years old, received Special Needs Parole in April 2023. She was housed in DRDC infirmary for a month and after she received a Special Needs Parole she died at Denver Health in June 2023.

Frequently, Special Needs Parole is awarded too late in the person’s life. Many states have created geriatric parole entitling people aged 60 years and older who have served at least 10 years of their sentence to an automatic parole hearing.

It should not take the corrections system more than 20 years to empower an individual with the healing and skills necessary to live crime-free after release. Every dollar spent on incarcerating a person is a dollar that is not spent on education, mental health treatment, or community support system. [What You Need to Know about Tabor, Brian Eason]

According to a national Bully Pulpit Poll, 72 % of Americans support the release of those who are elderly. There is a need to reject the status quo and reimagine new approaches to successfully lower the number of incarcerated people. Developing effective policies and practices to respond to the elderly and infirm prison population is a critical issue for CDOC which is facing a growing number of older people in prison and an increasing cost of medical care. We should take a second look to decide if it is logical and prudent to continue to incarcerate people who are old, severely infirm or dying and whether it is a judicious use of public safety resources.

Lisa Lesyshen