Incarceration of the Elderly

Due to the stringent laws enforced by the U.S in the 1970’s to fight crime, the population of elderly prisoners has drastically risen in the country’s correctional facilities. Some of the issues surrounding the incarceration of the elderly include; the high financial strain it causes to the U.S government. Old prisoners pose a more significant economic threat than young offenders. The cost of maintaining an elderly prisoner is two to three times more than that of keeping a youthful offender.  Secondly, older prisoners suffer high rates of health problems. Since their immunity is low, they are prone to various health conditions such as diabetes and cancer. It is hard for the correctional facilities in the U.S to provide the elderly inmates with the top-notch health care services that they require since they are in-equipped with the advanced technology present in health facilities out there. This has resulted in high mortality rates for the elderly prisoners who have been incarcerated (“?? Dying Inside: Elderly in Prison | Fault Lines”).

It is evident that most American societies imprison people that are dangerous to us and people who we are mad at. Most of us believe that long-term imprisonment is the only solution to combat evil in our societies. This notion is however misleading and is not the best approach to solve our societal issues. We need only to imprison people that pose a threat to our societies. Secondly, the mode of imprisonment should be short term. Short-term confinement has proven to be very useful since it shows the offenders that unlawful acts have severe consequences and they need to amend their wicked ways. There exist situations where incarceration is no longer necessary. First is in the case of the elderly who have been incarcerated for long.  These people lack the energy and will to break the law. They are primarily harmless in society. It is also not advisable to detain people with minor offenses. Fines could be used as an alternative to incarceration in their case. Incarceration is not cost-effective from a public safety perspective since it leads to strain on the government expenditure as it tries to manage the overpopulated correctional facilities in the U.S, rather than investing in the police department.

Works Cited

“?? Dying Inside: Elderly in Prison | Fault Lines.”YouTube, 7 June 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvqj8hgxRfg.