by BILL BERKOWITZ
PHOTO/miss_millions/Flickr
If you are an aging prisoner in the United States, 50 is the new 65.
This phenomenon is called “accelerated aging” and according to the Urban Institute’s KiDeuk Kim and Bryce Peterson, “the physiological age of some older prisoners is up to 15 years greater than their chronological age.” This is in stark contrast to outside prison walls where our youth-oriented culture labels “40 as the new 30,” “60 as the new 50,” and so on.
Older prisoners — a demographic that is growing rapidly — face numerous hardships and injustices from incarceration, including : having their chronic health conditions ignored or mistreated; physical threats from younger prisoners; the need for special equipment, including wheelchairs and walkers to be able to ambulate around their prisons; difficulties climbing on and off top bunks; trouble hearing, making it challenging to discern orders from guards; and mental health issues, many of which are the result of prolonged imprisonment.
In a new report titled, “Aging Behind Bars: Trends and Implications of Graying Prisoners in the Federal Prison System,” Kim, and Peterson emphasize that “While this may be caused by a host of related factors—including histories of unhealthy behaviors and inadequate healthcare—there is little doubt that the trauma and stress of the prison environment can have an impact on prisoners’ accelerated aging and deterioration of health.”
Citylab.com’s Tanvi Misra recently reported that, “In 1994, prisoners over 50 made up only 12 percent of the total U.S. federal prison population. In the intervening years, the number of seniors in prison has increased 330 percent. It’s the fastest growing age group in the federal prison population, as the report notes.” In less than five years, the number of prisoners over 50, which was at 18 percent in 2011, could rise to as high as 28 percent.
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