The (medical) costs of long sentences

The Tuscon Citizen has this thoughtful article about Arizona’s aging prison population and the rising health-care costs associated with this phenomenon.  Here are some highlights from the article’s discussion of an issue impacting prisons nationwide:

Arizona’s prison inmates are getting older, sicker and they are staying behind bars longer, driving up health-care costs that have to be shouldered by taxpayers….

Arizona, with more than 32,000 inmates, mirrors a national problem, as its prison health-care allocations have increased 78 percent in the past decade.  And because aging inmates, those 55 and older, can cost three times as much to care for as younger inmates, experts warn they could potentially bankrupt some of the nation’s already cash-strapped prison systems.

Officials blame longer sentences and truth-in-sentencing guidelines that virtually abolished parole…. All this means states across the country are scrambling to find ways to offset mounting medical expenses racked up by older inmates or grappling with adopting early-release programs for elderly inmates and those who are chronically or terminally ill.  At least 16 states provide special housing units for geriatric inmates, and soon Arizona will join more than two dozen states that operate hospice facilities inside prisons to provide end-of-life care at a reduced cost.