Aging Inmates Put New Strain on Prisons

The nation’s prisons, already beset by overcrowding, violence and drugs, now face a quieter crisis--the small but growing number of inmates growing old in jail or re-entering society late in life.

In Pennsylvania, the prison population has doubled since 1981, with older prisoners an increasing part of that number.

Statistics from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, an agency of the Justice Department, show that the number of prisoners age 50 and over is currently about 1.8% of the total prison population--more than 20,000 inmates in state facilities nationwide.

Julia Glover Hall, a Drexel University professor who has studied both gerontology and criminology, is developing programs to cope with the special problems of older prisoners and parolees.

Older prisoners fall into three categories, she said: the young prisoner under a long sentence who has grown old in jail; the career criminal who has been in and out of prison; and increasingly, the older offender who commits a violent crime and is jailed for the first time.

When these older prisoners are released or paroled, they may feel a bit like Rip van Winkle waking up in a fast-moving world.

“When an older prisoner comes out on parole, there’s an enormous cultural shock,” Hall said.

“They’re coming from a place where all their decisions have been made for them, and some of them have been in jail so long that they don’t have any families or friends left when they come out.

“So much has changed for them,” she said. “Simple everyday things like bus fares and (automatic teller) machines are brand new to them.” In addition, whatever job skills they had may be outdated.

Hall has received a $111,000 grant from the federal Health and Human Services Department to create training aids for parole and probation officers assigned to older prisoners.

These officers must go beyond the traditional role of just monitoring ex-offenders and deal with the special needs of older clients, she said, and that role must be tempered with an understanding of the elderly.

For example, missing a meeting with a parole officer may not be an act of defiance, but simply because an elderly person may have trouble remembering appointments, she said.

“I teach them redundant cuing,” Hall said, “Don’t just tell them--write it down--then remind them again.”

For the elderly who are in prison, the problems can be more serious.

“The system now is not made to do anything more than just house young men securely,” said William Campbell, 57, who was released three years ago after 12 years behind bars.

Activities available in prison are usually for the young, like basketball and weight lifting, he said, and the apathy that can plague any prisoner is worse for many older offenders, who are faced with the idea of dying in jail.

“A lot of old fellas, they come in here with more years than a man can carry,” Campbell said. “If you’re 57, and you come in with 15-to-20, that’s it, man, you’re through.

“A younger prisoner can accept that his life is going to go on after he gets out,” Campbell said, but for the older prisoner, “There’s nothing in jail for him, he’s like a snowball in hell.”

Campbell, now a counselor at a Philadelphia substance-abuse treatment center, said he spent his last years in prison fighting for better facilities and medical care, another problem that accompanies an aging prison population.

Medical care for healthy young inmates ranges from $14,000 to $20,000 a year, but Hall said costs can be two to four times that amount for older prisoners.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing older inmates and parolees is that they are not yet that big a problem. Although prison officials are aware of the increasing number of older inmates, they have yet to make them and their needs a priority.

“The aging population is something we’re concerned about, but it’s not our first priority,” said Ken Robinson, a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokesman.