Aging Inmates in the Jail Systems

Hi Everyone! I had an assignment last year that asked, "what would you suggest to the correctional and jail systems about over crowding jails. One main subject has to give your thoughts on if elderly inmates that pose no threat anymore should stay incarcerated or if they should go free." I wanted to know what you think!

Me personally I believe it shouldn't matter if you are a threat or not. If you did the crime you deserve to pay the entire time you were served. However, I also understand that the government can't afford to hire more guards and build enough buildings to keep them all under control. I also know that by allowing some people to leave after serving only a little of their sentence can be a bad thing because I have seen people not learn their lesson and end up back in prison. My answer in my project was that you have to take each case and look at it individually. A man that entered the jail as a healthy middle aged man that raped a woman or a child and then ended up with cancer or some other life threatening disease and made him paralyzed from the waist down of course wouldn't be a threat. If he was dying some people may look at that as a way for the jail not to have to pay his hospital bills, by allowing him to go home and 'be with his family in his last days'. On the other hand, if a future rapist or killer sees that once you believe a person is unable to do the crime and they follow and act as if they are unable to move properly but in reality nothing is the matter with them, physically I mean, then who's to say they won't use that as a way to get out and do their crime again.

What do you think?

I had to read that twice- the phrasing is somewhat awkward. It's something that I've been hearing more (which is to say, hearing a few as opposed to no words) about recently. There is no question that overcrowding is a serious problem, however the decision about when to release a person is probably best decided case by case- I don't think there is any reliable way to generalize the process because there are just so many variables involved. But then, my experience is pretty limited. You'd be better off waiting for some of the wiser folks to answer so you can get a better picture.