TAXPAYERS FEEL STRAIN OF CARING FOR INMATES

| always meant to retire," 64-year-old Frank Parker said over the racket of
the dozens of conversations around in in the crowded prison visiting room.
"But not like this."

Parker wears a hearing aid, false teeth and glasses, walks stiffly on an
artificial knee and takes 16 different medications every day. A former
truck driver from Galt with thin white hair, a neat white mustache and age
spots on his hands, he will be spending at least the next several
years-and~d possibly the rest of his life-behind bars here at the
California Medical Facility near Vacaville on a murder charge.

The 12 years he has already put in have been increasingly unkind. He has
developed bleeding ulcers, had a heart attack and suffered a stroke that
left him blind in one eye and occasionally paralyzed on his right side.

But Parker's failing health isn't only his problem. All of his ballooning
medical bills, from his $10,000-plus knee replacement to his $12,131
hospitalization for a stroke, are passed along to California taxpayers.

Elderly inmates like Parker are one of the fastest growing segments of the
booming prison population in California and nationwide. Though their
numbers are still relatively low. They are rising rapidly and are on track
to zoom skyward as "three strikes, you're out" types of mandatory sentences
and a tightening of parole combine to keep ever more convicts locked up for
life. Corrections experts are warning that the result will be an explosion
in prison medical costs.

The average California in mate costs the state about $21,470 per year,
according to the latest Department of Corrections flgures. Elderly inmates
typically cost up to three times as that, primarily because of their
greater medical need.

Many geriatric prisoners are five to 10 years older physiologically than
they should be, their bodies prematurely worn down from years of alcohol
and drug abuse and the stress of prison life. According to the
Washing-based Project for Older Prisoners, the average inmate over 55 will
suffer from three chronic illnesses while incarcerated

"The typical 40-year-old prisoner looks like a 60-year-old . on the
outside," said Dr. Eugene Juel, chief medical officer at San Quentin
prison. "That gets more pronounced as they get older."

A 1994 study by Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo estimated
that the number of inmates over 50 could climb as high as 126,000 by the
year 2020, costing California tens of billions of dollars.

"It's a disaster," said Dr.Armond Start, a former medical director of the
Texas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin prison systems and now head of the National
Center tor Correctional Health Care Studies.

"lf you look at Medicare, 40 percent of the money is spent in the last 60
days of a person's life. We're going to incur those end-of-life costs with
all these guys, and our kids will have to pick up the cost. I think that's
trag~ic," Start said.

California s prison health care costs have already shot up to about $463
million per year, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katy
Corsaut. That's more than three times what they were only 10 years ago.

No state plan for care

In recent years, several states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and
Alabama, have created special geriatric facilities to cope with their aging
inmates.

"Older prisoners get injured just from moving around," said Johnathan
Turley, founder of the Project for Older Prisoners. "You can cut costs by
having them all in a place that is all on one floor, with no stairs, and
where there are specially trained staff who can recognize and treat
problems before they become severe."

Despite the looming need, California has no plans for such a facility, said
Corrections spokesman Tip Kindel.. "We deal with prisoners on a case
by-case basis, and try to tailor their placement to their needs," Kindel said.

Turley's organization works to cut overcrowding and save money by gaining
early release for elderly prisoners who are no longer a threat to society.
The project has won parole for more than 200 convicts nationwide since
1989, not one of whom has gone back to prison, he noted.

The cost of monitoring a convict on parole is about one-tenth that of
keeping one in prison.

"Age is the most reliable predictor of recidivism," Turley said. According
to Bureau of Justice Statistics research, about 22 percent of prisoners
ages 18 to 24 wind up back in prison within a year of their release; for
prisoners over 55, the rate is less than 2 percent.

"Us older lifers aren't really the problem," said San Quentin inmate
Richard Shores, 57, sitting on a steel bunk in his tiny two-man cell
decorated with pictures of family, friends and Tina Turner.

"I've gotten my life right. I've learned four trades in here. I'm ready for
society," said Shores, Iocked up since 1982. "It's the younger guys that
are in the revolving door.',

In fact, however while old age is a generally reliable predictor, it is no
guarantee of good behavior. Most older convicts came into the system
relatively recently. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 25
percent of state and federal prisoners over 55 have been incarcerated less
than a year. and 68 percent less than five years.

In California. almost a quarter of all prisoners over 55 -including
Shores-are in for murder. Thirteen percent were convicted for violent
crimes ranging from rape lo assault

However they end up there, life in prison is especially harsh for the elderly.

California's prison medical system is little comfort to the many who suffer
health problems. Many of the state's prisons are under court order to
improve their health care, and Corrections has lost a number of lawsuits in
recent ears brought by inmates for medical negligence.

Parker, in the California medical Facility, said he has an artificial knee
because prison doctors had neglected to give him a brace that could have
saved his real knee. Worse, he aid, he lost the sight in his right eye
because the prison doctor botched an operation to remove an infected retina.

"I'm afraid to let them get close to me with a knife, after my eye," said
Parker. "This is supposed to be a hospital, but it's a joke."

Some older inmates are victimized by younger, stronger ones-another reason
Turley recommends separate geriatric facilities.

Thomas Williams, 58, a desicated heroin addict currently in San Quentin,
who has spent more than 20 years in and out of prisons, said he doesn't
worry about that. "I know these young guys' fathers from the street," he
said. Still, looking around at the massive stone walls of the century-old
prison, he added, "My worst nightmare is to die in here."

Shores, still burly-cheated and muscular, said he is more concerned about
"getting caught up in something these younger people start." A few years
ago, he said, he got 10 days in solitary just for wandering over to watch a
protest demanding better food.

In recent months. some measures have been introduced to help at least
slightly alleviate the impending elderly inmate explosion. After vetoing
several earlier versions, Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill late last year to
allow compassionate early releases for terminally ill prisoners - but only
those judged to be within six months of dying.

And in February, state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, Introduced a
bill to amend the three-strikes law so it applies only to violent and
serious offenses.

Those measures, however. will at best only slow the rise in elderly inmates.

"California is going to hit a demographic wall in the next 10 years," said
Project for Older Prisoners head Turley. "If it doesn't develop a system to
deal with that, it can expect overcrowding and ballooning costs.'