America's elderly prisoner boom
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Published 2015-06-18
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Prisons are becoming America's biggest old people's homes. Now the country that locks up more people than anywhere else must deal with the consequences of a growing prison population. Growing old in prison is hard.
Samuel Baxter is an inmate here at the California men's colony prison in San Luis Obispo almost everyday for the past four years Mr Baxter has helped elderly prisoners get dressed, eat, and get about prison. It is a confronting job.
In America some 2.2 million people are behind bars, and the prisoners are getting older. The number of people over the age of 65 who were in prison has doubled since 2007. In fact, aging men and women are the most rapidly growing part of America's prison population. In part, this is the hangover effect of the 1980s and 90s when a perfect storm of high crime rates and tough sentencing laws caused prison populations to soar.
Phillip Burdick is 64. He works alongside Mr Baxter in a program called the Gold Coats. The volunteer inmates who become Gold Coats are carefully screened and shadow an experienced volunteer sometimes for several months of training. Older prisoners often have special needs; some have problems with mobility, others dementia or mental health.
Caring for the elderly behind bars presents unique challenges. Prisoners can have the physiological age of someone 10 to 15 years older. Glenn Crites has been in prison for 44 years, since he was 20 years old, for murder. He remembers catching another elderly prisoner, nicknamed Pops, staring at him. Pops had Alzheimer's. He was trying to remember who Mr Crites was. He didn't fight Pop's, but older inmates are more vulnerable than younger ones.
Of the 1.6 million inmates in state and federal prisons, 1/10 are serving life sentences. Many politicians are now keen to reverse this mass incarceration but long timers seem unlikely to benefit. In California, a bid to reduce prison populations means less serious criminals now serve time in county jails or in the community. The inmates left behind tend to be the ones serving longer sentences. These are often the elderly.
America spends about 16 billion dollars every year caring for older inmates. The gold coats program aims to allay some of those costs. Volunteers are paid a mere 36 dollars a month. A fraction of what outside help, like a nursing assistant, would cost the prison.
Despite the challenges, the Gold Coats continue to help their aging counterparts. Mr Baxter has a particularly personal reason for wanting to do so; his mother had dementia. Mr Baxter is serving 35 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a man. He had his first parole hearing in March, but was turned down. He won't receive another review for at least five years and he has come to realize the Gold Coats may one day be caring for him.
For the elderly men who are released after decades behind bars, there may no longer be any friends or family on the outside who can provide care. Not everyone here will be granted parole. Some of these men will die in prison.
For those nearing the end of their lives Mr Burdick serves as a grief counselor in the prison hospice program.
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All Comments (21)
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Mr Baxter is absolutely doing a great job. Regardless of his crime at least he is working to help people not just looking out for himself. Good job
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they won't parole mr. Baxter because he's some of the "BEST" help they got in that prison
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You can see total compassion in Mr. Baxter’s eyes. Prison staff need to retrained by Mr. Baxter! In addition, yes I agree he will never get parole because he is their BEST officer!
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When I was 19 years old, I went to prison. One of the first things I noticed was that. There were many old men there.
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If someone truly has dementia and can't remember anything, then they are basically a different person than the person that committed the crimes. Keeping them in prison is a big waste of money.
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The problem isnt that the prisoners are getting old.....thats just common sense. The problem is that Americas prison system is totally ineffective. Other developed countries have prisons that actually rehabilitate offenders and turn them into productive members of society but the US just cant seem to handle that kind of responsibility. As a result, we are paying billions per year for something that doesnt work. Americans should be furious about this.
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I work as a caregiver for the elderly and I can relate to Mr. Baxter it’s heartbreaking. My patients that I work with don’t even know what they’re even doing in a nursing home.
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Remember, the longer those prisoners stay in prison, the more money the companies get.
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I was once an inmate and I was teased for being housed in the elderly part of the compound, one one man passed away but I received more wisdom from some of those guys than family
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Put these prisoners in a separate wing so they will not be victimized. With a separate cafeteria and guards specially trained to handle them
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Anyone in for drug charges that did not cause a death should be let go,
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Keeping anyone in prison who no longer can take care of themselvs is just a waste of money
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May God bless those volunteers & the men they care for.
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Me Baxter thank you for taking care of the elderly man. You will be Blessed for what you do. My Grandmother had dementia and it was hard for her to not be able to take care of herself and for her not to recognize us. There should be a place where these men are kept and taken care of 24/7 by nurse assistance’s. Thanks for all you do.
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I am not saying prisoners should be coddled,but sometimes a little humanity goes a long way.
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Very nice of that inmate to help elderly prisoners
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They need to be in a separate prison like kids don’t go to regular prisons that should have something like that for the elderly
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Elderly inmates should have separate facilities, and senility should be taken into account when we assess parole. The size of the prison population in America is sickening, especially when you consider just how many inmates committed only non-violent drug offenses. The measure of the humanity of a society is how it treats it's lowest members.
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The saddest part of the whole deal is, if they just let most of those elderly prisoners go, they wouldn't have any care or housing at all.
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Thank you Gold Coat Brothers. God Bless each of you.
