Geriatric Incarceration, Marijuana Pardons & More
"You don't usually build prisons with nursing home-type housing."
A report in NPR this week looks at the challenges of caring for an increasingly elderly prison population in the United States. As those sentenced to long terms of incarceration continue to age, their healthcare demands rise, and facilities across the country are finding themselves ill-equipped to deal with the needs of this population. Experts argue that soon we will be at a tipping point where states will either need to adapt their facilities rapidly to meet the needs of their ballooning elderly population, or look at alternatives like early release.
"It's a stunning turnabout, especially so soon after the wave of national protests against the system for being too harsh."
A recent wave of new laws and ballot measures in a handful of states across the country show that many politicians and voters think crime is on the rise and tougher laws will help fix the problem. USA Today details the recent rollbacks in Louisiana, Oregon, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. while contextualizing the reforms passed over the last 15 years and highlighting evidence on what efforts have actually reduced crime.
"It’s easy for us to throw people away. But if somebody is putting in the work to truly transform and can be useful to society, families and communities, then why not use that person? I believe in redemption if somebody has done the work."
In Pennsylvania, over 1,000 individuals are serving life without parole sentences for murders they didn’t themselves commit. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to review whether this is constitutional. The case, which the court will hear later this year, marks a potential turning point for a state that’s exceptionally punitive by national standards in handing out life without parole sentences.
"We can be certain that this pardon will redress some of the harm those disparities have caused in Massachusetts and we'll continue to do all that we can to eliminate racial injustice throughout our systems."
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced a sweeping plan this week to pardon all people convicted of simple marijuana possession, which, if approved, would forgive all state court misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana prior to her announcement. The plan must be approved by the Governor’s Council next, which is the elected eight-member body that approves pardons and judicial confirmations.
"Building a new building is not going to fix all of the problems, by any means."
Nine years ago, former Governor Larry Hogan shuttered the Baltimore City Detention Center. Now, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is pushing ahead with ambitious plans for its replacement—the Baltimore Therapeutic Treatment Center—which comes with a $1 billion price tag that would make it the most expensive state-funded project in history. The state says it needs the new facility to comply with the 2016 settlement of a decades-old lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of health care in Baltimore jails. Civil rights groups suing the city over those conditions questioned whether a new building was going to address the challenges that have led the state to be off track with the terms of the settlement.