Stick Up a Bank Today!
California's “Geezer Bandit” — looking for health coverage?
And then after you’ve been arrested and you’re on trial act as nasty and unrepentant as you can, because the verdict you want is life without parole.
For an example of the benefits you might receive from such a sentence, consider the case of Illinois’s senior convict, the late William Heirens. Until he passed away earlier this year at the age of 83, he had been in prison since he was seventeen. His expenses to the state, including medical care, had reached $73,000 a year, paid (with no deductibles) by the taxpayers of Illinois. A reasonable guesstimate of what Illinois taxpayers spent on feeding, housing, doctoring and containing Mr. Heirens since he was sentenced in the early 1950s would be around $2 million and counting.
Mr. Heirens wasn’t alone, either. In Illinois, the total number of prisoners is increasing at the tiny rate of 0.07%, but the increase for the subset of prisoners older than 65 is a whopping 63.0%.
Is there a sudden spike in lawlessness among the senior set? Or can it be that the elderly with crushing medical expenses have learned to take advantage of this new retirement package?
Henning Andersen says:
There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark – but there is something not alive on the platter of the US & A. It doesn’t surprise me, that the number of inmates who reaches old age is staggeringly high, as it would be expected in states and countries which adore life-long og triple-lifelong sentences; some of them dudes are bound to get old behind bars. And yes – a sentence to jail is a promise of living at the state’s expence. For months, years or decades, depending. Nothing new there. But it concerns me, that a country can be so wound-up by it’s own myth of the brave&the free, and anything is possible the old Scrooge MacDuck fashion if only you have the will and the spirit, to a degree where a sentence is a favourable consideration, when down and out. And your Mr. Obama is quite back in the qeue as to whom to blame. There are certainly others up front and in person. The problem, however, dwindles down to a vehement and a quite medieval sentiment (although, that’s not quite true) that your own luck and your own disaster is intirely your own problem. Society means community means solidarity – unless one aims at the fantasmagorical outlets of Ain Rand – and gud luk vit dat sort of establishment, or lack of same
November 5, 2012, 9:08 amChris McKitterick says:
Fred, this story totally sounds like an idea you would write… except that it’s happening now, in our culture. This is a depressing comment on our social support system. Fascinating, too.
November 5, 2012, 1:11 pmMarc Marino says:
I am definately in favor of finding other ways to deal with this problem other than a life sentence. I know it’s not easy but I believe I have heard that some correctional facilities are finding other alternatives. I found it most unfair tht my brother had to pay dearly for his care as he was cared for most of his life in institutions. But had he been a prisoner the state would have taken care of things. After the O J simpson trial I had hoped to see a massive reform of our justice system. I was very disappointted that didn’t happen.
November 6, 2012, 10:25 amWilliam Kone says:
I kept thinking about Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, how he talked about spending most of his life behind bars, “for thirty years I had to get permission to pee” (or something like that) and how he would think of ways to go back. I don’t know, but someone who is 83 and been in prison since he was 17, this could be like that.
Going to prison to get medical coverage when your over 65? In this nation we have something called “Medicare” and it’s back up system called “Medicaid”. You qualify as long as your over 65. it is not great, but it is better than the coverage of a lot of plans offered by major employers and at a lower cost.
I think Henning Andersen hits the issue of the growth in elderly prisoners with the triple life with out parole.
November 6, 2012, 5:57 pmChristina says:
It’s the least they could have done for William Heirens, since they refused to revisit his case. His story reveals more about our society today than just how our social support system functions (or doesn’t, depending on your opinion).
November 7, 2012, 9:50 amJohn Boston says:
The increase in elderly prisoners does not reflect a wave of geezer crime but the extremely long prison sentences meted out in the United States starting in the 1970a and intensifying in the 1980s and later. People who were sentenced to life terms 30 and 40 years ago are now predictably growing old in prison, rather than being released.
November 7, 2012, 10:25 pm