As prisoners turn 70, should they go free?

Not only would this eliminate prison overcrowding, but releasing the older prisoners might cut down on malpractice suits for health care.

Prisons have been sued because guards didn't pay enough attention to complaints of chest pain.

I am ambivelent on this. Ultimately, I think early release should be tied to the individual, not their age.

No. What's the point? It's not like they are going to go out and make a contribution to society...

Life sentence means just that.

Although...

suppose I commit a crime at the age of 69?

Couldn't we just send them to Australia?

Send them to Washington, DC. They couldn't do any worse then the current residents.

Age and health should be considered with all inmates early release.

Along with time served, crime and danger to society.

White collar crime would go crazy if an automatic age for release were to come to pass.

Some people seem to think 70 yr olds are helpless. Not true, in many cases.

I like to think my mother's not helpless (she's 70), neither is my father-in-law (he's the same age).

While I don't see either of them committing a bank robbery any time soon (Ma, how could you?), they can both drive, carry a few pounds and see distances.

'Sides, haven't these lawmakers seen The Sunshine Boys?

I voted no. If they did something bad enough to be in there at 70, they should finish their sentence. If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime! Keep your nose clean and you stay out of jail.

They did the crime knowing the conciquences, if you know the conciquences to something and you do it shouldn't you take full responsability for those actions.

80 perhaps, or 90 ... but no, too many problems with it. For example, last decade or two have seen a number of belated sentences for WW2 crimes, for people, now very old, who had been allowed to escape or go free, or hide in 'friendly' countries back in the 40s and 50s. The whole point is that they shouldnt be allowed to enjoy a pleasant old age when their many victims have been robbed of one. And thats just one example.

Only way to un-overcrowd your prisons is to stop sending people there for smoking a joint or carrying 2 grams of hash. How many of the US prisoner population is there for petty drug sentences like that? 30%? 40%? I dont like people smoking much myself, but sending them to prison by the masses for it is one expensive, bad joke.

There's a guy here in prison for life for the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl. The only way he should leave is feet first in a box.

In Oz people don't go to prison for smoking a joint. The only reason they do in the US is because it historically was a drug associated with blacks and hispanics.

actually IMO the reason I believe ppl go to jail fro smoking a joint is the fact that government wants to control ppl, it takes away profit from the tobacco industry and they dont like this. Concidering it was corperate america who got it banned in the 1st place tells us something.

rape should be a death penalty, it's happening all too much and I have seen the pain ppl go through over it. It pains me to see this it makes me sick, a rapist takes from their victom with no reguard for human emotion, human life......they should experiance the same an eye for an eye.

I completely agree with the last 4 responses!

There's a pretty strong whiff here (and I don't mean the discussion re pot) of age discrimination for prisoners who are old enough to meet the requirements of the Age Discrimination Act (40 plus) yet are too young to be freed as a 70-year-old.

Also, if prisoners are freed at age 70 because they're either no longer a menace to society (highly unlikely - many senior citizens could rob a bank or help plan a murder) or, more likely, because the government doesn't feel like paying for medical care for them, that seems to me a lot more like the government simply weaseling out of its obligations (oh, and don't forget that people younger than 70 can have massive medical bills - witness Warren Zevon, who just died at age 56 and had lung cancer for a couple of years. And what about AIDS patients and their huge medical bills?).

Also, say a prisoner is freed at age 90. Most prisoners - particularly someone who'd be kept in stir until such an advanced age - are poor. At the age of 90, most people (prisoners included, of course) are bereft of much of their family. Where does the 90-year-old ex-con go? S/he is very likely not going to go out and earn a living, so what are the alternatives? A nursing home? The grandkids (assuming they'll take in Grandma or Grandpa, which is highly unlikely when we're talking about a long-term prisoner who they probably hardly know)? A hospital? An SRO hotel or homeless shelter?

Seems to me that all that's going on is that the government is merely trading these people from one institution to another, in the long-shot hope that some of them will be taken in by their families so as to avoid the government having to foot the bill for care. Elderly-dumping, isn't that all that this is?

Make it legal to get as fvcked up as you want on anything you want as long as you stay indoors while doing it.

Give people mandatory on the spot execution if caught on the streets fvcked up. Just stop 'em, give 'em a 3 cent bullet to the head, and call the city service to pick up thecorpse.

Now....

The prisons aren't so clogged up.

We've addressed the right for a person to put anything in their body they want.

We've addressed the issue of other segments of the population having a right to be outdoors safely without getting hurt or killed by some loaded idiot.

We've thinned the herd.

Most beneficial, Washington DC will be littered with the bodies of most of our politicians and maybe people who drink and snort and take speed all the time will not be making decisions that effect all of our lives.

A win win program in my opinion.

Edblythe (and others) couldn't be more right, this piece of **** has been sodomising children since he was 15 years old and at 73 he still is:


http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_488325.html?menu=

Right you are, kev. . I am 61 and I bet I could do anything a thirty year old can do - just not as often, some of it.