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Okay, so this isn't really verse, but it is an alarming revelation. Pennsylvania's 45,000 prisoners are getting progressively older; MUCH older! And, therefore, much more costly to keep imprisoned.
According to published figures provided by the Pennsylvania Department Of Imprisonment (and, therefore suspect for accuracy) almost 10% of the prison population is now 55 years-old or older. In the next 5 years the percentage is expected to double! By 2010 the Department of Imprisonment says there will be 9000 senior citizen prisoners! In reality, there will be many more. The simple fact is that young prisoners tolerate the abuses or prison much better than older prisoners can. For that reason, the thousands who are older than 55, cost more than twice as much per capita to store and abuse as the younger men. Old prisoners get much sicker, much more often and they suffer from costly chronic problems. When they are victimized by the younger, aggressive persons and/or by the vicious guards, they tend to sustain greater and longer lasting injuries. All of these things cost the taxpayers money. A senior citizen prisoner costs about $75,000 per year to keep imprisoned. It hardly seems like a good investment given the fact that older prisoners have little or no probability of committing another offense. The punishment extremists of the far political right want lots and lots of prisoners and they want to pay less and less to care for them. One thing which pleases the punishment extremists is that Pennsylvania prisoners are dying at the rate of about 210 per year. Almost all are the old men who cost the system so much money and who have suffered the most. First Governor Tom "Revenge" Ridge and now the equally bad Eddy "the Jailer" Rendell appear to be delighted with their handiwork. Pennsylvania is dyig and these dunces have only one accomplishment - prison! In the Ridge Reich the only good prisoner is a prisoner being guarded by highly-paid white rural Republicans, but a dead prisoner isn't bad, either. |