PRISON MAKES LESS SENSE FOR THE YOUNG AND OLD

At $31,000 a year, is it worth it to lock up a drug abuser? The answer
is certainly a resounding "no!" It is interesting to note that as the
prison population ages, along with the graying of the general
population, costs for these "senior" inmates, classified as those over
50 years of age (due to their harder life) in the penal system,
dramatically rise. The average cost to house such seniors approaches
three times that of the average inmate.

If any of these aged inmates require dialysis, heart surgery, etc., as
wards of the state (that's us), we are required by law to supply it.
It is actually more secure for a senior with a serious infirmity and
without money to be in prison than to be on "the outside." Does this
make any sense at all?

Tom Pontac

Seal Beach