AGING INMATES COST TO SOCIETY MORE THAN DANGER

Back in 1994, Florida got tough on crime.

State legislators whipped themselves into a law-and-order frenzy,
curtailing parole, adding more mandatory prison sentences to the
statutes and culling out a three-strikes-and-you're-in (prison)
forever bill from 10 different versions churning through the
Legislature.

Even liberal Democrats took up the tough guy pose. "The feeling is
that crime is out of control and criminals are in control," said
then-State Sen. Robert Wexler, who was championing legislation
requiring chemical castration for sex offenders.

No one in such an overwrought atmosphere paid much attention to
warnings about unintended consequences. Lately, though, they read like
prophecy.

In 1994, Florida prisons housed 2,930 inmates over the age of 50. By
last year, the number was 15,201.

"The number of elderly and aging inmates in the prison population has
become one of the most serious issues facing state correctional
systems already struggling with growing populations and increasing
healthcare costs," the Florida Correctional Medical Authority warned
last winter.

Older Earlier

Outside of prison, no one other than my adolescent daughter regards
50-somethings as geriatric. But the stress of prison life combined
with lives marred by drinking, smoking, drug abuse and poor diets
render prisoners into prematurely aging physical wrecks. Inmates over
50 have the expensive healthcare needs of ancients.

We're paying big bucks, in 2010, for the tough political poses of
1994.

The FCMA, created by state law to monitor prison healthcare, found
that an ever escalating number of old-before-their-time and downright
old prisoners are devouring a wildly disproportionate chunk of the
state corrections budget.

The average prisoner costs the state around $24,000 a year. Gray heads
cost more than $70,000. Taxpayers pick up the bill for wheelchairs,
hearing aids, eye glasses. A fourth of all sick calls among Florida's
100,000 state prisoners are generated by old folks. That percentage of
the prison population accounts for a third of the chronic diseases, a
third of the hospitalizations and 40 percent of the surgeries. They
consume a fourth of the pharmaceuticals.

Growing Problem

The numbers will only escalate. By 2030, a third of state prisoners
will be of the elderly kind. The state prison system, saddled with so
many mandatory life sentences, is evolving into a very expensive
nursing home.

Juxtapose this against the geriatric set's relative threat to society.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission reports that offenders over 50 have a
recidivism rate of about 9.5 percent compared to offenders under 21
who recommit crimes at a 35.5 percent rate.

Not often does a proposal by liberal Democratic State Sen. Chris Smith
parallel a recommendation by the conservative Florida Tax Watch, which
issued a report in March counting up millions that could saved by
paroling certain, nonhomicidal elderly prisoners. Smith, meanwhile,
introduced a bill suggesting parole for certain oldsters who've served
25 years of their sentence.

Society may not have much to fear from aging criminals, but they still
terrify politicians. Smith's bill got little support.

As it turns out, the 1994 get-tough law meant three strikes and we all
pay forever.