Photos: Too Old for Prison?

[xchrom]

http://www.motherjones.com/photoessays/2012/09/elderly-prisoners-hospice-photos/timgruberservedout08jpg



LaGrange, Kentucky, July 9, 2008 — Words or images cannot capture what I felt today as I watched a old prisoner I'd gotten to know die right before my eyes. He was the second man I have seen pass away since I began shooting in the nursing/hospice unit of the Kentucky State Reformatory while my wife, filmmaker Jenn Ackermann, works on a documentary in the prison's psychiatric unit.

Seeing these men die, just as one of the hospice workers had told me it would, simply makes your heart drop to the floor.

I'm not used to this. I never want to get used to this.

[Downwinder]

1. Ought to have some nursing home pictures for

a comparison of conditions.

[clydefrand]

2. not good picture no matter were they are, but:

IF YOU CAN'T DO THE TIME, DON'T DO THE CRIME.

[Bonobo]

4. That's pretty heartless. nt

[1-Old-Man]

3. Which is worse, that an old man die in prison or that a young man goes to prision

Easy answer, all old men die. Its the most natural thing in the world and it does't matter that they do it a bit. But it is not natural to imprison a man, and a young man in particular who will carry the scar of imprisonment for life, and so it should never happen.

There is something profoundly wrong with a country that imprisons as many people as we do, and its not going to be fixed by toying with the top marginal tax rate.

[Care Acutely]

18. So a young man who kills a child, a woman, a man, should what?

Go to the Ritz Carlton for 30 years?

Obviously we shouldn't have prisoners in the numbers we do, but that's an entirely separate issue. You assert that no man should be imprisoned.

[Marrah_G]

5. everyone dies

Life in prison means you die in prison. Death in itself is sad and I think what your family does for them in their final days is a good thing. I'm not sure letting them out would be a good answer, but perhaps looking into making their last days as comfortable as we can in a less prison like setting would be a good thing.

[Romulox]

6. Comments on this site never cease to amaze. Now we are spouting "Don't do the crime..."

[Bonobo]

10. It is something fucking else, ain't it?

Live old enough and you see everything.

It is shocking to see how fluid this whole Democrat/Republican thing is, isn't it?

makes you think it's largely a tribal thing...our team vs. their team and at least 3/4 of the people in the stadium don't give a shit about ideology at all. Just.support.the.team. But for their birth and upbringing, they might as well be on the other side.

Fucking sad, fucking disheartening, fuck.

[Romulox]

12. To many, the police state is like water to a fish, or air to you and me--so ubiquitous as to be not

worth noticing. That's the most charitable explanation I can come up with.

[Brickbat]

7. It's hell to get old, no matter where you're getting old.

[alterfurz]

21. Amen, brother!

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard there's nothing you can do. -- Golda Meir

Growing old is not for sissies. -- Bette Davis

[Sheepshank]

23. These men have someone with them when they die

they die in bed, fed, hydrated and in relative comfort.

Not so much for many, many poor neglegted old people with little or no family for comfort and to take care of their basic needs. Many will and have died in a manner that shames our society. Hungry, cold, dirty, lonely and in pain.

Prisoners die. We don't know why they were relegated to life in prison. It's generally for some pretty heinous stuff.

[riderinthestorm]

8. I read the article and looked at every picture and I'm confused at the outrage

Is it because these men die in prison? They all look comfortable, cared for, and some of them even have friends with them. This doesn't look too different than many people's "end".

Is it because (some of) these men die alone? That's not uncommon.

Is it because its prison and not a hospital or nursing home? I hate to break the news but the conditions in the prison hospice don't look terribly different than a hospital or nursing home.

Or is it because they ended their final years "inside", and not "outside"? Who would take these men into their homes in order for them to die there? Granted some may still have family but I'd guess more than a few do not anymore. Regardless, if you release these men whose going to have the $$ to pay for their expensive care, meds and nursing til they go? It seems kind of cruel to dump them out of the system at the very end when they're going to need the certainty of healthcare the most.



I'm not trying to be cruel or indifferent. I was prepared to be outraged but honestly, the pics didn't provoke that for me. Just the usual grief I see at another soul's passing....

[xchrom]

9. i don't think it's meant to cause outrage.

i think it's a meditation on our humanity.

[Romulox]

11. We incarcerate a higher percentage of our populace than any other nation in the world.

That the "home of the free" is the most punitive nation on earth is in itself the essence of the problem.

That is to say, these men wouldn't die in prison if our society didn't have a policy of incarcerating vast swaths of our population.

[riderinthestorm]

14. Oh I agree 110%. But the photos don't say why these men are in prison

If they're mass murderers or in for simple drug busts. So its hard to say if they should be incarcerated. I'm going to guess a certain percentage of these men have done some kind of hard crime but I'm not passing judgement on them or why they're still in jail at the end of their lives.

Fact is, some people will die in prison.

That said, these particular pictures don't elicit shock or horror (other than the usual somber sadness of another's passing).

[warrior1]

13. My two cents

Would the older dying inmates have the support of a family if they were allowed to die as free men? I don't know if they would have that support, but it would be costly for a family to have to take on a dying inmate relative.

IMO

[aikoaiko]

15. Some people probably should die from old age in prison

Without knowing what led to these men being incarcerated, it is difficult for me to fully understand these images.

If they were minor offenses with caring families on the outside, then I feel sad for them

If they were for horrible, violent crimes, then being cared for by thoughtful inmates in the safety of a hospice section of the prison is a good result for them.

yes, context matters.

[slampoet]

16. I have always found it odd that we Don't send elderly people to jail, but we have no

problem with letting the elderly already in prison die there.

I have interpreted it as a side effect of the bigotry against the young in the power structure.

[nolabear]

17. Beg to differ. We do send people in their 60s and 70s.

I know of a few. Its not a big part of the population but then it's not a big part of the offender population. I do know of both sex and drug offenders who have gotten considerable time post-60.

[slampoet]

19. Second offender is the operative phraze there.

I have a family friend who is going to jail for 7 years for two drunk driving deaths of his passengers one night, yet there was that case in LA where a man drove through a market and killed 9 people while he was stone cold sober and wasn't charged.

The difference? the first people is a kid of 17 years, the second was 86.

IT isn't whether or not you can find a few outliers who go their second conviction.

It is about crime to crime penalty comparison.

[Dr. Strange]

20. We don't?

Bernie Madoff was sent to jail in his 70s. And he didn't even kill anyone.

[localroger]

24. Edwin Edwards too

And he didn't leave financially ruined and outraged victims demanding his head on a pike; his crimes were racketeering and corruption.

[onecent]

22. Bless your heart for the things you do for the people

in prisons---- possibly with no family close by. Many many blessings to you and your
family for a WONDERFUL contribution!!!!!!!!!!

You are the kind of people who give me hope!