New Jersey houses almost 1,000 inmates over the age of 60, but while many states offer geriatric parole for aging inmates, New Jersey only does so if a prisoner is suffering from a terminal illness or permanent disability.
Advocates want to change that with new legislation, arguing only 1-3% of released inmates over age 60 end up back in jail.
“It’s really a matter not just of some radical criminal justice reform project, but of pure humanity,” said Larry Lustberg, director of Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest and Constitutional Law, which issued a new report promoting geriatric release of elderly New Jersey prisoners.
“People who are sick and old should not have to die in jail,” he said.
Calvin Bass, 55, grew up behind bars after going to prison at age 14, convicted in a Newark murder case. Bass spent 38 years “behind the wall,” where he often volunteered to sit with older inmates in palliative care, men in their 70s and 80s.
“For a lot of older people, they’re just waiting to die,” he said at a news conference promoting the report. “And in prison, one of our greatest fears is dying in prison. Why? Because we feel you die in prison, your soul is not at peace,”
Former Gov. Jim McGreevey, chairman of the New Jersey Reentry Project, said he hears often from families who want to reunite with aging relatives.
“We’ve been petitioned by many families who want to take their elderly loved one into their home for their last years of their life,” he said. “This is a compassionate course — both by the de minimus risk, by virtue of their age — but also the appreciable cost savings which would inure to the benefit of the state in terms of healthcare and Medicaid.”
McGreevey said New Jersey pays $74,000 per year on average to house and care for each inmate. But healthcare costs soar as prisoners age. Geriatric release could save New Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars, he and others said.
“We’re at a time of fiscal difficulties,” Lustberg said, “and so the imperative to save money will be a compelling one. But the sense that too many old people are being housed in our jails and prisons is really one that’s sweeping the country.”
The new Geriatric Release Report recommends prisoners get certificates of eligibility to petition the court for release if they’re at least 60 years old and served 20 years, or older than 62 and served 30 years or more in murder cases. Under the proposal, the judge would consider an inmate’s state of rehabilitation, disciplinary record, and psychiatric state.
“This is a robust and rigorous review of the petitioner’s background and of the suitability of the petitioner to be released,” McGreevey said.
Under this proposal, the inmate would enjoy a presumption of release unless they’re a danger to a person or the community, simply not ready for independence, or if their release is against the interests of justice, advocates said. The report includes draft legislation and also recommends other suggested supports like housing and enrollment in Medicare or Medicaid.
