In 2009, prison workers drove Debbie Peagler from the Central California State Prison for Women to a Denny’s near Chowchilla, California. At 49, Debbie had stage IV lung cancer and an estimated three months to live. She joked, “I came to freedom in a Denny’s parking lot.” She died ten months later.
Her story is part of the documentary Crime After Crime detailing the plight of elderly inmates:
Aging prisoners face some of the worst conditions and treatment within prisons, and they are the most expensive to house. Most policymakers seem to fail to see the implications of two facts: long-term, aging prisoners are astronomically expensive and they reoffend at the lowest rate of prisoners. In California, the cost to imprison a prisoner has increased by $19,500 since 2000; over one-third ($8,300) is from increased health care costs (and $7,100 for security, most likely because of overcrowding). The average elderly female prisoner in a California prison costs $138,000 per year and since prisons are not eligible for federal Medicaid and Medicare funding, the state picks up the tab.
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The combination of harsh prison conditions and poor physical health frequently results in quality of life that is more effectively cruel and unusual than for the general population. According to Dignity Denied, a report by Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, current California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation housing issues put older and disabled prisoners at risk. Their report highlights a survey of women over 55 in Central California Women’s [Facility] in which more than half of respondents report that they fell at least once in the last year, and two out of five respondents report being injured while performing a daily prison routine. Cells without handrails, long-distance walks to the dining hall, and a limited number of bottom bunks exacerbate the challenges of aging.
More at BeyondChron.
