Health Care for Elderly Prisoners

A recent inmate at the Florida penal system is an 83-year-old
who was sentence to life for the murder of his wife.

An article in the Orlando Sentinel mentions that he became the 71st inmate
who is 80 or older in Florida prisons.

There are 14,000 inmates 50 or older in Florida's correctional institutions.

The oldest prisoner is an 89-year-old man and separated by only a
few months is an 89-year-old woman.

It costs taxpayers three times more for older inmates than for those
under 50 because of health case. This care includes wheelchairs and
cancer treatments along with a multitude of prescription drugs.

Four of the prisons in Florida have "geriatric" wings to handle the elderly and their needs.

More than 3,000 prisoners aged 50 or older were sentenced to prison in Florida this past year alone.

There are 760 female prisoners aged 50 or more and three who are over 80.

The state has had to build a geriatric wing in the woman's prison in Ocala.

A corrections official stated that Florida would be wise to consider a

version of a recently enacted federal law that requires the U.S. attorney general

to establish a pilot program to move nonviolent elderly offenders to supervised home detention.

The law recognizes research that shows people "tend to 'age out' of crime," he said.

The 83 year old supposedly acted in self-defense according to his attorney.

The question to consider is whether the non-violent elderly should be given

supervised home detention. Another issue is the degree of medical care:

should we pay for transplants? expensive chemotherapy? etc.

What is your opinion on the subject?