The Incarceration Of Aging And Elderly - 1474 Words

Over the last thirty years the number individuals held in the United States Prison system has been growing rapidly. Numerous studies have found that the prison population that is growing most rapidly is the elderly population. For the purposes of this paper, the term aging and elderly population will refer to those who are incarcerated and are over the age of 61. As the number of elderly inmates continues to increase the number of stressors put on both the correctional system and the individual. In general, the correctional system faces a significant amount of financial stress in attempting to care for aging inmates, where as the inmates themselves face more emotional and physical stressors of aging, chronic illnesses, and even dying in prison. This paper aims to examine the stressors faced by the system and the individuals, as well as alternative options to continuing the incarceration of aging and elderly individuals. Current Statistics In order to have an understanding of how significant of an issue the aging population in prison is, it is important to have an idea of what the population looks like, including how many aging and elderly inmates are currently incarcerated, the demographics of the aging and elderly prison population. For the purposes of understanding the demographics of the aging and elderly incarcerated populations, both the Federal Prison System and the Illinois State Correctional System will be described separately. Federal Statistics. According to theShow MoreRelatedSolving The Problem Of An Aging Prison Population1250 Words   |  5 Pagesof an Aging Prison Population Joshua N. Handy American Military University Abstract The American correctional system is facing many emerging issues. One of these issues is the exponential increase in aging offenders. In the past few decades, the number of geriatric offenders incarcerated has multiplied at an increasing rate. 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