The former prisoner, slowed by arthritis, heart problems, and chronic pain, shuffled slowly while on his way to the local shelter's free cafeteria for people like him. He was frank in assessing his future prospects after being released from a long sentence in federal prison. "I'm thinking about committing another crime, so they put me back in jail. At least there, I had food, a place to sleep, and another prisoner assigned to pushing me around in a wheelchair if I couldn't walk. It's my retirement plan," he said smiling, but deadly serious. It is an situation that does not bode well for already overtaxed BOP or state prison budgets.
Unfortunately, his story is far from unique in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). There are thousands more just like him, gladly enduring the myriad indignities of incarceration for the certainty of having someone take care of him. According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, the number of prisoners 65 or older is now over 26,000, upf65% from 2007. There are few federal statistics on what medical care for elderly prisoners cost the BOP, but the figure is growing rapidly. Even with providing what amounts to carefully-rationed medical care, the BOP is obligated to respond to emergency medical crisis and refer prisoners to expensive outside clinics if its prison medical facilities, little more than medicine dispensaries, can't deal with the problem. Failure to do so might result in the prisoner's death or serious injury, from what the courts have termed, "deliberate indifference." Each year, the BOP is served with numerous well-founded lawsuits accusing them of just that.
This is not just a problem for the feds, either. Numerous states have noted increased costs for elderly prisoners, and in Connecticut, the prison system estimates it spends almost $5000 per prisoner for medical care, in addition to annual costs exceeding $20,000 per year, with some prisoners incurring tens of thousands of dollars for emergency surgeries and other critical care expenses. These prisoners face uncertain futures upon release because they have no family and no place to go when their sentences expire. It is a problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
