essays
The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration
The United States currently incarcerates a higher share of its population than any other country in the world. We calculate that a reduction in incarceration rates just to the level we had in 1993 (which was already high by historical standards) would lower correctional expenditures by $16.9 billion per year, with the large majority of these savings accruing to financially squeezed state and local governments. As a group, state governments could save $7.6 billion, while local governments could save $7.2 billion. These cost savings could be realized through a reduction by one-half in the incarceration rate of exclusively non-violent offenders, who now make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population. A review of the extensive research on incarceration and crime suggests that these savings could be achieved without any appreciable deterioration in public safety. (19 page pdf document, June 2010)
The Aging Prison Population
The aging of the prison population in the United States can be attributed to what some have called a perfect storm in the world of corrections. With an increase in tough on crime legislation - including harsher sentencing, curtailing the powers of judges, and the elimination of parole throughout the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. correctional system is finding itself saddled with a booming elderly population of long timers and the chronically ill.
As Japan Ages, Prisons Adapt to Going Gray
In the prison’s brightly lighted workroom here, 47 inmates sat behind long tables and quietly performed their chores. Grasping some pink checkered fabric, No. 303 unhurriedly started making a pair of knit slippers. Some seats away, No. 335 gently threaded gray envelopes with white string. Up front, No. 229 was gluing together corrugated cardboard pads, and his stack rose steadily, though slowly.
California’s Aging Prisoner: Demographics, Costs, and Recommendations
Transcripts of the meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Aging and Long Term Care, Senate Select Committee on the California Correctional System, and Senate Public Safety Committee including the shocking testimony from Jonathon Turley, Professor of Public Interest Law and founder of Projects for Older Prisoners. (92+ page pdf document, 2003)
Confronting Confinement:
A Report of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons
On June 8, 2006, the Commission released Confronting Confinement, a report on violence and abuse in U.S. jails and prisons, the broad impact of those problems on public safety and public health, and how correctional facilities nationwide can become safer and more effective.
The report reflects the Commission's work over more than a year — an inquiry that featured four public hearings in cities around the country where nearly 100 people testified, visits to jails and prisons, conversations with people about their experience of life behind bars, discussions with current and former corrections officials and experts working outside the profession, and a thorough review of available research and data. (126 page pdf document, 2006) Correctional Health Care:
Addressing the Needs of Elderly,Chronically Ill, and Terminally Ill Inmates
As the median age of inmates in our jails and prisons steadily increases and the incidence of chronic illness and disabilities grows ever larger, the issue of how best to manage services and care for older inmates and those with chronic and terminal illnesses becomes more prominent. (150+ page pdf document, 2004) Dying to Get Out
Just try to imagine somebody that you love larger than life, and not getting to be there in their last times. The worst thing is not knowing whether my mother's last thoughts in this world were ill of me because she didn't know we were coming.
Dying Well in Corrections: Why Should We Care?
Why should anyone care how convicts die? For some, humane treatment is the right thing to do, but others feel criminals deserve whatever happens. Prison hospices represent a constructive development. The staff and inmate volunteers that work in them have important lessons to teach our contemporary society.
Dying with Dignity
Prison is a tough place. Yet Enoch’s plight is not as grim as it might have been. McCain Correctional Hospital, where Enoch is serving six years for assault with a deadly weapon, provides health care for ailing patients. It is the only prison facility in the state that offers the level of care prisoners like Enoch need.
Elderly Prisoners Are Literally Dying For Reform
A study emerging from the Stanford Law School class entitled, Crime and Punishment Policy: Reforming California Corrections. This course offered students a unique opportunity to learn about California's historic attempt to reform its juvenile and adult corrections system. By Tia Gubler
Giving Dads Their Day
Does your facility ask its male inmates if they have children? Not all jails and prisons do, which means they overlook an issue that impacts the children's risk of incarceration and the father's chances of recidivism. However, more and more states are now focusing resources on incarcerated fathers, and the InsideOut Dad program, created by the non-profit National Fatherhood Initiative is spearheading the effort. By Ann Coppola
Health Care In New York State Prisons
In 1997, the Correctional Association initiated an in-depth study of the quality of health care in New York State prisons. Over 18 months, members of the Prison Visiting Committee made 25 site visits to 22 prisons representing all levels of security and including both men's and women's facilities. Interviews were conducted with over 1,300 inmates, approximately 100 prison medical personnel, several former New York State prison physicians, as well as lawyers and experts in correctional health care. (85+ page pdf document, 2002)
Hospice and Palliative Care in Prisons
According to the National Prison Hospice Association, hospice “is an interdisciplinary comfort-oriented care that allows seriously ill and dying patients to die with dignity and humanity with as little pain as possible in an environment where they have mental and spiritual preparation for the natural process of dying.” (11 page pdf document, 1998)
Hospice Eases Inmates' Deaths
When Herbie Schnee gasped his last breath March 5, he departed the Iowa State Penitentiary the only way society would permit him to leave. An article by Des Moines Register staff writer William Petroski.
Hospice - Sail to Serenity
Hospice in prison, was this the humanitarian show of compassion or simply another way to cut the cost on an aging population of prisoner's serving life and mandatory sentences?
Imprisoned to the Bitter End
State law allows for the release of inmates whom prison medical authorities have determined have six months or less to live and present no danger to society. The purpose is to allow inmates some time to spend with relatives before they die, either in private homes, or in community hospices.
Innovations in End-of-Life Care
Three first-person narratives from the perspectives of a hospice inmate volunteer and two members of security at the Louisiana State Penitentiary Hospice Program, recipient of 2000 Circle of Life Award.
Investigating illness
Despite what some recent front page headlines have claimed about incarceration extending life expectancy, prisoners do not actually live any longer than people on the outside.
The Meaning of "Life": Long Prison Sentences in Context
Over the past three decades the political climate in the United States has increasingly embraced “get tough” policies as the primary focus of a crime control strategy. These policies have been wide-ranging in their impact, and include such features as high levels of drug law enforcement, greater reliance on determinate sentencing, and most significantly, a vastly expanded use of imprisonment. This report was written by Marc Mauer, Ryan King, and Malcolm C. Young, Assistant Director, Research Associate, and Executive Director respectively, of The Sentencing Project. (37 page pdf document, 2004)
Medical Causes of Death in State Prisons 2001-2004
Describes the specific medical conditions causing deaths in State prisons nationwide during a four-year period. For the leading medical causes of death, mortality rates are presented by gender, age, race and Hispanic origin, and the length of time served in prison. The report includes detailed statistics on cancer deaths. Mortality among older prisoners is examined in detail. Prisoner death rates are compared with rates in the general U.S. resident population. Data on medical treatments provided for these fatal illnesses are presented, along with findings on the presence of medical problems at time of admission to prison. State-by-state mortality rates are presented for the leading causes of illness deaths in appendix tables. Detailed data tables on topics covered in the report are available on the BJS website. (12 page pdf document, 2007)
Medical Parole: Politics vs. Compassion
Dostoevsky reminds us that society can be measured by how it treats its prisoners. And part of that measure must surely be the degree of compassion we show toward the dying. Yet compassionate release, or medical parole, is an under-used and too rarely granted option for terminally ill inmates in our U.S. prisons.
Nursing Newbies
Jumping into the correctional health care field just isn’t the same as working at a private practice. But when John Gardner got sick of the crazy hours of the private sector, he turned to corrections to find a new nursing niche.
Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System
While the impact of incarceration on individuals can be quantified to a certain extent, the wide-ranging effects of the race to incarcerate on African American communities in particular is a phenomenon that is only beginning to be investigated. What does it mean to a community, for example, to know that three out of ten boys growing up will spend time in prison? What does it do to the fabric of the family and community to have such a substantial proportion of its young men enmeshed in the criminal justice system? What images and values are communicated to young people who see the prisoner as the most prominent pervasive role model in the community? What is the effect on a community’s political influence when one quarter of the black men in some states cannot vote as a result of a felony conviction? (87 page pdf document, 2000)
Re Enter: The Social Cost of Incarceration
The issue of prisoner re-entry is complicated by shifts in public policy, lack of funding, and barriers to education, employment, housing, and healthcare. Re-entry efforts must begin inside the walls, and have to be extended by the community outside. Public awareness is the first step toward improvement. We hope this magazine helps open your mind to the issue of prisoner re-entry - it definitely opened ours. (40 page pdf document, 2004)
Repent, Release, Expire
After European studies recently showed that newly released prisoners were more likely to die than the general population researchers in Washington state decided to tackle the subject with their own data analysis.
Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity
Since the early 1970s the prison and jail population in the United States has increased at an unprecedented rate. The more than 500% rise in the number of people incarcerated in the nation’s prisons and jails has resulted in a total of 2.2 million people behind bars.
This growth has been accompanied by an increasingly disproportionate racial
composition, with particularly high rates of incarceration for African Americans, who now constitute 900,000 of the total 2.2 million incarcerated population. The exponential increase in the use of incarceration has had modest success at best in producing public safety,1 while contributing to family disruption and the weakening of informal social controls in many African American communities.
Overall, data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics document that one in six black men had been incarcerated as of 2001. If current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. (27 page pdf document, 2007)
Unintended Consequences of Sentencing Policy:
Strategies to Address Long-Term Care Needs of Prison Inmates
Changes in sentencing policy, including longer and more numerous mandatory sentences, have contributed to changes in the prison population. The number of inmates overall has increased as has the number of older inmates. Chronically ill and/or disabled individuals of any age can need long-term care. (262 page pdf document, 2002)
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