The issue of mass increase in the number of aging inmates has become a major concern for the government agencies and researchers. This is based on the resulting social and economic impact that the growing population of elderly inmates impose. As Rikard and Rosenberg (2013) notes, the trend of rapidly increasing population of prisoners above fifty five years is likely to go higher unless the current federal and state laws are reviewed to come up with a possible solution to deal with the associated impacts of the elderly population in prisons.
According to the research conducted on the causes of this trend, it is noted that the shift of sentencing from rehabilitative to incapacitating sentence after the Vietnam War can be attributed to be the cause of the current situation in prisons in addition to resulting to overpopulation in correctional facilities. This is because prior to this period, convicts were taken to prison with the aim of rehabilitating and correcting their behaviors but this had changed as the convicts were incarcerated and given long sentences based on the specified federal offenses. The resultant is inmates staying in prison for most of their lives, usually until they are old.
The current increase in the number of convict in correctional facilities is high with majority serving long sentence, indicating the population
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It is agreeable that the authors’ recommendations including the need for the correctional centers to adapt to age-targeted facilities to accommodate the growing population of elderly inmates, or adopt health related paroles, amend incarceration policies, adopt effective elderly inmates reintegration process or release old inmates who pose no threat to the society are applicable in dealing with the elderly inmates