 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Estelle Schneider, MS PT, Department of Health Education/MPH/Community Health Education, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132, 415 665 1581, estelas@igc.org
While the U.S. population has grown only 20% in the last twenty years, the number of people held in the U.S as prisoners in local, state, and federal lock-ups has doubled, and then doubled again. Put another way, during the prison boom of the last two decades, the number of Americans of all races in jail or prison quadrupled from 502,000 in 1980 to 2.1 million in 2001, according to Bureau of Justice statistics. This is far more than ever before, and more than any other country on earth. It has been said that to fully understand society, one must look within the prison walls. Within the U.S. prison walls, it is apparent that the majority of prisoners are people of color and underrepresented minorities, in large part coming from economically impoverished communities and returning to them as well. Prisoners represent some of the most marginalized populations in the U.S., walled off within a discrete structural and cultural institution. One of the most difficult and challenging consequences of this mass incarceration is the situation of the elderly, chronically ill, and end-of-life inmates, who in reality are a multiply disempowered subset of the marginalized. A survey done in by the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives shows a sharp increase in the number of older prisoners. There are currently 49,013 prisoners over the age of 55 incarcerated in state and federal prisons. In 1979, at the beginning of the imprisonment boom, there were approximately 6,500 prisoners over 55. The number of elederly prisoners in U.S. prisons is now 7.5 times as large as it was only a generation ago. The issue of aging prisoners and their health and social needs is multicausal and multi-factorial. Although demographic trends play a role, for the purpose of this presentation the problem of aging prisoners is seen primarily as a consequence of the policies leading to mass incarceration. The situation of elderly prisoners, their health needs, alternatives to incarceration, and the implications for public health, deserves a close look.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Incarceration,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.