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| "GROWING
OLD BEHIND BARS" |
The
number of older prisoners in Virginia has more than
doubled in the
past 10 years, creating new issues for the state's
prison system. |
| The
Richmond Times Dispatch |
| January
4, 2009 |
By
Frank Green - TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Photos : Eva Russo |
CAPRON
Winter sunshine slices through a narrow security window
and falls on Aloysius Joseph Beyrer's white hair,
slight shoulders and the linen covering his fractured
hip.
Like the rest of the country, Virginia is coping with
a growing number of aging inmates. |
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Beyrer, 84, is the state's oldest and his home, the Deerfield
Correctional Center, focuses on geriatric inmates.
In 1999, Virginia had 2,015 prisoners 50 or older. Today, there
are almost 4,700, and by 2011, state officials expect there
to be 5,057.
A drop in the number of paroles granted to inmates who remain
eligible is a factor in Virginia's increasing number of older
inmates. Truth-in-sentencing reforms that in 1995 led to stiffer,
no-parole sentences for violent crimes are expected to contribute
to Virginia's aging prison population in coming years.
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At
Deerfield, wheelchairs and walkers line aisles in the
secured assisted-living dormitory, where it would be
easy to confuse the frail residents with those in nursing
homes. But it would be a mistake to do so.
Beyrer, a veteran of prisons in Virginia and elsewhere,
thinks Deerfield, "is pretty good," though
security comes first there, even for octogenarians like
Beyrer, who is serving 100 years for sex crimes. The
prison's goal is to provide older inmates care and some
dignity, not freedom.
The warden, Keith W. Davis, who has a master's degree
in social work, makes it clear he is not running a spa
for the golden years. "This is not a perfect world.
We do not have unlimited resources," he said. |
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| Arthur
Harcum 70, reads "Beyond Valor" In the assested-living
area
at Deerfield Correctional Center in Southhampton County. |
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Even
with a blank check to meet all their medical and mental-health
needs, Davis said no one wants to grow old or die in a prison.
"That's a big challenge for the staff. . . . We do what we
can do, but we can't cure oldness," he said.
"Offenders are like the rest of us. We get old, we get ill,
we die," he said. Deerfield provides a continuing-care community,
he said, "so they can reach what we believe is their fullest
potential -- body, mind and soul."
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Experts
say substance abuse, little or no health care before
imprisonment and the stress of living behind bars can leave a
50-year-old inmate physiologically 10 to 15 years older than his
chronological age.
In general, older inmates require more supervision and medical
and mental-health care, as well as special diets, mobility aids
and special housing.
Deerfield, Virginia's only prison dedicated to geriatric inmates
and inmates with special medical needs, accommodates 1,080 inmates,
90 of them in wheelchairs and 65 percent over the age of 50.
Other older inmates and older female inmates are in prisons such
as the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women and the Greensville
and Powhatan correctional centers.
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Critics
point out that many older inmates are far less likely to commit
new crimes and could be released at great savings. Prison officials,
however, believe their care would largely be at public expense
in or out of prison.
And though older people are less likely to commit crimes, some
still do. Beyrer was 67 when he was convicted in Virginia Beach
of statutory rape, aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy.
Deerfield's head nurse, Bonita Badgett, said 800 of the inmates
there have at least one chronic medical condition such as diabetes,
high blood pressure or asthma. The prison psychiatrist, Dr.
Amit Shah, said the major problem he treats is depression. In
October alone, the prison handled 5,200 prescriptions. |
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Badgett
has a staff of 14 registered nurses, 25 licensed practical nurses
and 21 nursing assistants. Two physicians are at the prison
three days a week and the psychiatrist visits once a week. At
least one registered nurse is on hand at all times.
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Deerfield
was selected 10 years ago as the site for older offenders.
An expansion opened in 2007 and there is now an 18-bed infirmary,
a 57-bed assisted-living dorm, a larger ancillary-care dorm, a
dorm for diabetics and a dorm for other special-needs inmates.
More than 75 percent of Deerfield's prisoners have violent records
and nearly 30 percent are sex offenders. Security measures are
complicated by health-care needs, said Maj. Stanley Mayes, chief
of security for the prison.
"These guys have a lot of serious medical needs and . . .
there are a lot of unusual [and potentially dangerous] pieces
of equipment or property that we will allow them to have that
you typically wouldn't see in another prison," he said.
Officers must be sensitive to prisoners who are gravely ill, suffering
a heart attack or a stroke. "But not be deceived by someone
who is faking to get an advantage to facilitate an escape,"
Mayes said.
Not everyone at Deerfield is happy. More than 200 inmates signed
a letter to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last year complaining about
the parole board's low grant rate. One inmate claims staff stole
his pain medication as he recovered from an injury.
Parole issues aside, inmates interviewed during a recent tour
said they liked Deerfield.
James Henry Tinsley, 59, and partially paralyzed, has been there
since 2003. "I been locked up 26 years," said Tinsley,
convicted of 55 felonies, including capital murder, robbery and
burglary.
"You've got some good people here. I ain't got nothin' bad
to say about'em. . . . As far as the medical, I give it a double
A plus," he said.
Another well-traveled inmate, William H. Glazebrook, 74, has been
in the state system for 25 years and at Deerfield for a year and
a half. "This is Boy Scout Camp compared to the rest of'em.
This is a hell of a lot better," he said.
The Rev. Lynn Robinson, the prison chaplain, says, "These
guys here, man, this is a special group of fellows." He said
the inmates recently arranged to have Thanksgiving food baskets
sent to five families and raised $500 for breast-cancer research.
"The one thing, I think, the community can be aware of is
that . . . they need support when they come home," Robinson
said.Also, he said, "Saturdays and Sundays are visiting days,
and some of them have family in the general area, and for some
reason they don't come to see them. They need to stay in contact
with [their] children."
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Beyrer,
Virginia's oldest inmate, was a resident of Deerfield's
infirmary in November. Aside from six 1992 felony convictions,
little information was available about Beyrer because of privacy
rules.
He says that he was a once a prisoner at California's San Quentin
State Prison. California authorities could not confirm they
had ever held him, but New York state archives show he was released
from Attica Correctional Facility in 1956.
Dawn Mosena, the nurse manager of the infirmary, said inmates
are held there for observation and treatment before and after
hospitalization, in addition to long-term care and special-needs
inmates such as Beyrer.
She said the staff is planning how to make room for what is
expected to be more long-term patients such as Beyrer.
Last year, an inmate's mother was allowed to be with her son
in the infirmary when he died. "We want the patient to
feel comfortable and the family to feel comfortable and know
that they can be with them in those last hours," Mosena
said.
"We want to get a hospice program going," she added.
Davis said another problem is that, "a lot of these guys
have outlived their families. . . . We could open the door to
let them go, and where would they go?"
Badgett, Deerfield's head nurse, agreed. "Some of them
we had to keep beyond their release date because we couldn't
find a placement for them. There was no family out there, no
home, there was nowhere to send them," she said.
Sex offenders, particularly, are difficult to place. Most nursing
homes do not want them, and families often reject them because
of their crimes, or, "the families simply cannot take care
of the needs and medications."
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At
Deerfield, younger and healthier inmates -- dubbed "pushers,"
short for wheelchair pushers -- assist the older inmates and
perform a wide variety of essential jobs for 45 cents an hour,
primarily janitorial and in health care, that help keep the
prison running.
One "pusher," James Lee Wainwright, 47, imprisoned
in 1990 for armed robbery, helps in the infirmary. He said he
has also assisted with health care at another prison before
arriving at Deerfield.
"I plan on taking it up when I get out of here," he
said.
An infirmary nurse said, "We couldn't function without
these guys, literally, without their eyes and their help."
William Robison, chief psychologist at Deerfield, said some
inmate helpers perform odious jobs, peculiar to hospitals and
rest homes, for infirm inmates. A program has been set up to
help the helpers, Robison said.
"The caregivers support group is . . . for guys who are
caring for other guys here. You know, if that isn't therapeutic
education, what the hell is?" Robison asked.
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Inmate
James Wainwright brings lunch to fellow inmate Ottie Balley
in the Infirmary at Deerfield Correctional Center. Inmates such
as Wainwright are paid 45 cents an hour to help care for other
inmates |
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"It's
a little different here, the way we even think of mental
health. We try and redeem a guy."
Said Robinson: "What we do is to find them a purposefulness
in living in prison and maybe dying in here." He
is familiar with programs in other states and said,
"I think we're light years ahead."
"We're not soft on crime. Tough love'em, and they
could still die here with some atonement . . . with
a sense of humanity and self worth." |
| Expenses
higher for geriatric prisoners
The annual cost per
inmate at Deerfield is placed at $27,985
By Frank Green - Times-Dispatch
Staff Writer |
The
Virginia Department of Corrections is required to provide
all inmates with “needed health care for medical,
dental and mental-health services consistent with community
standards.”
According to the department, in the fiscal year that
ended June 30, 2007, the annual cost per inmate at the
Deerfield Correctional Center was $27,985, compared
with $23,246 per capita systemwide and $16,000 to $17,000
a year at medium-security dormitory facilities.
A recent survey of 41 states and the U.S. Bureau of
Prisons and Corrections Today found there were almost
125,000 inmates 50 or older, but fewer than 10,000 beds
in facilities dedicated to older inmates.
The Corrections Today report predicts the nation’s
older inmate population could increase tenfold in the
next decade and the associated health costs could double
that.
Any Virginia inmate – except those who have committed
capital murder – is eligible for a geriatric parole
if 60 and has served at least 10 years of a sentence,
or if the inmate is 65 and has served at least five
years of the sentence.
There have been just nine geriatric releases by the
parole board, though the board notes many inmates who
are paroled did not apply for a geriatric release.
The Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission projects
the number of inmates eligible for geriatric release
will double from 500 in 2007, to 1,003 by 2010.
The Department of Corrections says many are rejected
for geriatric parole because of the serious nature of
their crimes. The department has been monitoring the
geriatric population and has been issuing reports for
each of the last three years.
The department hopes to add an 80-bed nursing unit;
an 89-bed assisted-living unit; and a 42 bed Alzheimer’s
unit at Deerfield for $24 million. The department is
also planning for a $171 million, 150-bed hospital at
the Powhatan Correctional Center to serve the entire
system. |
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