New Mexico and Americas Graying Prison Population

In New Mexico and across the nation prisons populations continue to grow. The again prison population is growing rapidly and creates even more unimaginable challenges to a system that is inherently flawed and extremely costly.

New Mexico’s elderly prisoners cost significantly more and release costs the communities they return to, that are unprepared, and have punitive discriminatory laws.

As a result of decades of state and federal “tough on crime” and mass incarceration policies, about 2.3 million people are locked up in more than 6,000 jails and prisons across the United States. 

More than 600,000 individuals are released from prison each year.

Another nine million people cycle through local jails annually.

The prison population is graying. That Graying population further increases expenditures

The proportion of older adults in prison in the U.S. nearly tripled between 1999 and 2016, from 3 percent to 11 percent, and is projected to increase to more than 30 percent by 2030.

Older adults in New Mexico prisons and those across the nation report a high incidence of chronic conditions and physical and mental disabilities including inability to independently complete activities of daily living.

A study of incarcerated persons aged 55 and older found that 40 percent had cognitive impairments. Aging inmates are the most expensive to incarcerate and cost taxpayers an estimate $68,270 per inmate, twice the cost of an average prisoner, according to the ACLU’s report The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly.

In recent years, there has been an uptick in the number of persons released from prison overall—particularly older adults—fueled by both the desire to contain escalating health care costs and reform efforts.

A growing consensus for criminal justice reform has brought increased interest in policies supporting early release of older adults for compassionate, health-related, or other reasons however there is a cost on the other end of cities and states maintain laws that are punitive and limit housing and job opportunities for ex-felons.

Older adults in New Mexico and most state being released from prison or jail face particular challenges to successful reentry into their communities.

Inmates over the age of 50 are less likely to commit misconduct while incarcerated and have a far lower rate of recidivism once released, making them good candidates for release. However, once released, older justice-involved individuals face unique challenges:

• Difficulty in obtaining a job that fits their experience,
• Struggle accessing income support and other benefits due to lack of identification cards, and
• Trouble utilizing online resources to access community resources

The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging surveyed Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) across the United States in a study called Supporting America’s Aging Prisoner Population: Opportunities & Challenges for Area Agencies on Aging.

In the report, 91 percent of respondents said they do not run programs for aging inmates or those being released. When asked what training and technical assistance could improve service to this population, 48 percent of service providers answered they would like to better understand the needs of aging inmates.

There is an evident gap in services, but importantly, an opportunity to educate community providers on how to integrate this population into their current programming and build a network for these providers to communicate.

Researchers also urged, “For reentry programs, having data on the correlation between connecting recently released individuals to necessary services (such as transportation, housing and employment) and the impact on recidivism, would substantiate the need for these programs.”

Elderly and a License to Work is an Issue that the Legislature in New Mexico and most other states should act upon.

Many states, including Louisiana have loosened restrictions that kept people with criminal records from getting a variety of professional licenses. Many older individuals leaving the prison system took advantage of opportunities within the system snd secured a college education and or the skills for some jobs requiring licenses. From building trades to becoming a barber many older prisoners are released and could work but aren’t allowed to due to punitive laws.

Kentucky targeted occupational licensing boards that were preventing people with criminal records from getting licensed to cut hair or work in health care.

"We always want to talk about forgiveness, but if you get some of these offenses, there's no forgiveness," said Kentucky state Rep. Darryl Owens, a Democrat who has sponsored similar measures in previous sessions. "The offense ends up being a lifetime sentence."

Under the new law, professional boards can turn down applicants based on their criminal records only if there is a clear connection between the ex-offender's crime and the profession.

Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a former prosecutor and sponsor of the new law, said it should prevent licensing boards from denying ex-offenders outright. Nevertheless, Westerfield worries that a board member "who really wants to be a curmudgeon" could deny a license by claiming a tenuous connection between a past crime and the profession.

Arizona enacted a similar law in May but coupled it with a requirement that boards publicly report how often license applications are being denied and why.

"It's kind of a shaming mechanism," said Greg Glod with Right on Crime, a national conservative group promoting criminal justice reform in the state. Making the information public, he said, could prompt people to ask, "Why are you not licensing people to be barbers because they had a drug sentence?"

Health Care in Prison and upon re-entry a real challenge to the elderly. 

The health of the modern prison population is thus arguably a “distorted reflection of the general population” in that this population usually enters prison having had less access to primary care, a greater likelihood of co-morbidity factors such as substance use, and greater healthcare needs.

Prison populations have a high prevalence of communicable and chronic diseases, including: hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, arthritis, hypertension, ulcer disease, prostate issues, respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease, strokes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer; this prevalence is disproportionately higher in the older adult prison population compared with the overall prison population.

Incarcerated older adults also show a greater risk of injury, victimization, ailing health, and death than their younger counterparts.

Mental health is also a serious concern among the incarcerated older adult population. A study found that 40 percent of older incarcerated people had a diagnosis of cognitive impairment, a prevalence rate that far exceeds their peers in the outside community. Higher rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, and stress have also been found among older incarcerated adults.

The poor mental health of older adults in prison places them at greater risk for dementia and other severely debilitating forms of cognitive impairment.

Unfortunately, mental health diagnoses among older incarcerated people remain both underreported and undertreated. Research shows that corrections officers reported cognitive impairment in older incarcerated people at nearly five times the rate as that reported by prison officials, displaying a critical knowledge disparity within the bureaucracy that bears potentially serious consequences for incarcerated older adults who may not receive the care they need.

Cognitive, visual, and aural impairment (for example, failing to hear the orders of a correctional officer) can lead to behaviors mistaken for disobedience or aggression, and can subject individuals to institutional punishment, such as solitary confinement—further compromising the mental and emotional health of those most in need of care.

Thus with skyrocketing numbers and costs of the elderly in prison, government entities are seeking more early releases.

Given that transition communities and the state governments need to enact legislation that addresses punitive measures in the laws that make it difficult for those reentering society to find housing, employment and healthcare.

Failure to address these policies at the local and state level will further erode society and create further issues of economic inequality, homelessness and poverty among an aging population.

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