Issues in Criminal Justice (JF)
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By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: July 14, 2010
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A major public-safety initiative of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is to help inmates re-enter their communities and reduce the number who wind up back in prison, according to an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
But one major roadblock stands in the way: what to do with aging inmates who have nowhere to go when it's time for them to be released.
“These people are paying their dues to society, they’re doing their time, and we should set them up to succeed prior to release, rather than setting them up to fail,” said Marla Decker, McDonnell’s secretary of public safety. “We can start looking at what they need early on so that when it’s time to release them, we don’t have the difficult problems that we’re now facing, particularly on the geriatric side.”
One such case is sex offender Tyrone Gray Conway who was up for mandatory parole two months ago. He says corrections officials told him he can’t get out of prison because they can’t locate his family. After serving 30 years, he was driven in a state van from the Deerfield Correctional Center to the parole office in Richmond.
His return home, however, was short-lived. Because corrections officials were unable to find a nursing home or other suitable place that would accept him, he was returned to Deerfield.
"In some cases, literally—not just figuratively, but literally—they do not have a bridge to live under. What are we going to do with those people?" asked Keith Davis, warden of a prison where many elderly inmates are housed.
Often, older inmates have outlived their families or are estranged from them. For legal reasons, nursing homes and other facilities are reluctant to take them, even if they have Medicaid. Families initially willing to take them sometimes find they are unable to cope.
A major problem is the lack of long-term beds in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities for Medicaid recipients, the only coverage most released prisoners have. Also, according to one official, “trying to get a nursing home or an assisted-living facility to accept a sex offender is extremely difficult.”
“I did the abduction, I did grab the girl,” Conway said of the 1980 attack for which he was convicted. But he denies trying to attack her and says, “I did my time, and I think 30 years is enough.”
The growth of an aging inmate population is one the entire nation will soon have to contend with it, warned Davis.
To read the article, click here.
For related information on prison health issues, visit Justice Fellowship's Inmate Health resource page.
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