Pennsylvania has a prison problem, and it’s not the one most people think.
Yes, like most states and like the federal government, the Keystone State has a lot of people behind bars. The most recent population report for the Department of Corrections has just under 40,000 people in the state’s residential custody. That’s about 3.5 inmates for every 1,000 Pennsylvanians — a dead-center 25th when it comes to incarceration rates nationwide, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics figures.
The problem isn’t that there are inmates. It’s that the inmates are getting older.
While the average age of someone incarcerated in one of Pennsylvania’s 24 prisons is 40, 43% are older than that. State end-of-year demographics reports don’t get more specific than that, breaking the ages down to under 25, 25 to 39, and 40 or over.
However, it makes sense that the prison population would be reflective of the state population, and Pennsylvania is fifth in the nation in the number of residents older than 65.
Just like more and more Pennsylvanians are aging into a place where nursing homes and other specialized care is a necessity, so are those in prison.
On Friday, Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel announced the State Correctional Institution at Rockview in Centre County will be the first in the state to have a unit dedicated to the care and treatment of inmates with dementia.
This initial unit will house 12 male inmates, but Wetzel believes it would be replicable in other facilities for care of more inmates, including women.
This is a necessary solution. It is an example of the fact the state needs to think more about how to handle the aged in prison.
Pennsylvania has no legal mechanism to parole the elderly who would be better cared for in another kind of environment when the complications of aging affect their health. It is something that should be considered on a number of grounds — from the ethical to the medical to the financial.
The state prison system ends up footing the bill for expensive medical treatment that does not have to be its responsibility, except for when an inmate has a life sentence. A prison infirmary is not the best equipped to provide geriatric care. Dementia can make some people combative, which could put them at risk in a prison environment.
But is parole even possible in these situations? Parole usually requires a measure of remorse at a hearing. How can someone whose Alzheimer’s disease has regressed him to the memory of a child express remorse for a crime he doesn’t recall?
It’s a difficult question with no simple answers. It should be discussed seriously to decide whether converting portions of prisons to geriatric or dementia care is the best long-term plan.
— The Tribune-Review, Greensburg/TNS
