Posted 8:45 am Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Geriatric Prisoner Release Plan Weighed To Ease Budget Woes
KYTX CBS 19 VIDEO
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
and MICHELE REESE
KYTX CBS19
Staff Writer
and MICHELE REESE
KYTX CBS19
At a small table inside a prison geriatric center in Huntsville, convicted murderers Clarence Leroy Brown, 75, and George White, 67, play dominoes as another inmate slowly shuffles by, pushing an IV pole. A gaunt inmate with a catheter bag passes by in a wheelchair.
Brown and White are two of 57 men housed at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Estelle Unit's geriatric center. They suffer health problems. They remain incarcerated but are housed in a convalescent home within the prison's walls, just feet away from the unit's hospital.
It might be a special unit for those with multiple chronic medical conditions, but the fact remains it is a prison, and the convalescent center is a secured building surrounded by miles of fences topped with rolls of razor wire. Armed guards keep watch from their perches on high guard towers.
Many of the geriatric inmates shuffle or wheel around covered in blankets and tote portable oxygen tanks. There are those with cancer and heart problems, and some who have had both legs amputated due to diabetes-related problems.
As housing and medical care costs for them continue to rise, one Texas senator, among other people, want the geriatric inmates released so the state can shed that part of the $465.7 million it spends annually on inmate medical care.
More than 50 percent of that cost is spent on care for inmates 55 and older, prison officials said.
"We don't have the luxury to spend money on old, sick and dying inmates," state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said in a recent interview. "If we want to continue spending millions to house, care for and bury these offenders, then OK, but then we won't have money for education, roads and other programs where the money is desperately needed."
However, Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson is among those who disagree with Whitmire's assessment.
Jimerson said a jury's decision and a court's ruling should not be circumvented to "save a couple of dollars" while endangering the public.
"You're talking about accepting a promise from a criminal that he/she will not reoffend, when many of them have been given chance after chance," he said.
But are the old and dying inmates as dangerous as they were in their youth?
OFFENDERS 60-PLUS
The inmates resemble their counterparts in a nursing home on the outside.
They wait in lines for medications, and many have daily doctor's visits. They are watched closely for signs of additional medical problems. They talk about years gone by and about their grandchildren.
But the stark reality is that they are in prison, and they are there because they were found guilty of crimes.
"I'd like to be paroled to my wife in Troup. I'd like to spend the rest of my days there," said 86-year-old Stanis Whited, the geriatric center's oldest resident.
However, the odds of Whited, who is in prison for two counts of aggravated sexual assault, or any of the other inmates being paroled because they are gravely ill are minimal.
In fact, many proponents of the system, such as Jimerson, say the costs to keep the sick and dying men locked up are justified, because the public is kept safe from convicted predators, many of whom were sentenced to prison after they turned 60.
A look at some of the inmates' criminal history punctuates the argument.
When asked why he was incarcerated in 2007 on a 10-year sentence, Brown answered without looking up, "I killed a guy."
Estelle Assistant Warden Christopher Carter said the unit provides care and isolation from the general population, where the men could be victimized.
"We're obligated to give them the facilities and care they need, but they have to do their time," he said. "Crime does not have an age, and our prison system is seeing the population of aging first-time offenders increasing."
Brown said he hopes to be paroled in 2013 to his family but didn't know whether they could cover the costs of the medical care he was receiving in prison.
Jamie Williams, University of Texas Medical Branch patient operations business manager, said the issue is a double-edged sword.
"The offenders are like, 'Yeah, I want to go home; my family can take care of me,'" she said.
However, families might not be able to afford doctor visits, surgeries and medication atop normal expenses such as three meals a day, she said.
Carter said that whether the men should be paroled because of their medical problems was up to the parole board.
"We must remember why they are here," he said. "Unfortunately, this geriatric center is a necessary part of our environment."
White, who has suffered heart attacks and strokes, said his wife could take care of him when he comes up for parole, but he didn't know whether he would ever be set free.
"I don't think we'll have to worry about it," he said, looking down.
SOARING COSTS
With Texas facing serious budget problems, every program is being scrutinized, and Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said paroling some of the dying inmates could save the state a bundle.
Whitmire, commenting on the amount of money the justice systems spends yearly on inmates older than 55, said the only logical thing to do would be to parole some inmates to their families, who could shoulder health care and funeral expenses.
Records from the 2009-10 Correctional Managed Health Care report to the Texas Legislation showed offenders 55 and older averaged $4,853 in yearly medical costs, while the average for those below that age was $795.
The culmination of costs for the 151,225 offenders within the justice system rises to more than $465.8 million, with an additional $669,000 allocated to fund the Correctional Managed Health Care.
Records also show offenders older than 55 receive dialysis five times more than younger offenders at an average annual cost of $23,044 per patient. In 2010, the total costs for 196 dialysis patients soared to $4.5 million, from $3.7 million the year before.
Pharmacy costs grew to $39.8 million, with $19 million for HIV care and $2.7 million for hepatitis C therapies.
The report found that the population of offenders older than 55 continues to rise at a rate faster than the overall population.
The 2010 fiscal year population showed 11,803 offenders older than 55, a 7 percent increase from the year before.
Jimerson said costs shouldn't matter because the offenders are paying the price for their crimes.
"It shouldn't come down to a dollar amount, but I believe Sen. Whitmire will be successful in getting some of these people paroled because of the costs," he said.
Report results show The University of Texas Medical Branch and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center both saw increased costs from the fiscal years before.
UTMB reported costs had risen from $8.46 per inmate per day in medical costs from 2006-09 to $9.93 last year. The medical center's costs grew from $8.09 per inmate per day to $9.69 during the same time period.
Together, UTMB and the medical center report budget shortfalls totaling $21.6 million, and both entities "are continuing to monitor their expenditures closely, while seeking additional opportunities to reduce costs in order to minimize these operating losses."
Whitmire agreed that some offenders would remain confined but added that a man whose only threat is "to fall out of his bed and hurt himself" doesn't need to be locked up and continue draining the system.
Whitmire said the parole board should implement Medically Recommended Intensive Supervision as the Legislature outlined to help alleviate the growing problem.
The plan would allow those deemed elderly, in need of long-term care, physically handicapped, mentally ill, terminally ill or mentally retarded to be paroled under controlled supervision.
But, Whitmire added, "(The parole board) will just not parole many of these dying inmates to go home and die."
'DEATH PANELS'
Fred Durrough, TDCJ inmate, said he has watched man after man die in the hospice ward at the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony in Anderson County instead of being paroled to family.
Durrough, in prison for murdering a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel during a failed robbery attempt in 1973, questioned the amount of money the state spends on medical costs for aging inmates.
Durrough was sentenced to die twice but was acquitted of capital murder and given a life sentence for the shooting.
"The Texas Parole Board here should change their name to the Death Panels for Old Convicts," he said during a recent interview.
Durrough said he doesn't understand why the board will not allow someone with days or weeks to live to be paroled.
"They know when they turn them down, they are going to die in here," he said. "They're going to let all these people in here die because they are scared they are going to let somebody go. I understand the public probably agrees with what they're doing, but that doesn't make it right."
Durrough said that many times, he has seen a black van pull up at the prison to carry the dead to a cemetery.
In 2010, 392 inmates died in prison, and of those, 114 were older than 60.
TDCJ records show that the estimated cost for providing hospice services to dying inmates at the Tennessee Colony's Michael Unit topped $548,840 this year.
Durrough said during the interview there were 22 hospice patients, but the prison would not confirm those numbers.
TDCJ and UTMB officials could not provide information on costs for previous years.
Durrough, 70, said he has been turned down for parole 25 times but is up for it again and hopes he gets out.
"I deserved my punishment. I was stupid, self-centered and I deserved to get punished," he said. "I was sentenced to life, but not life without a chance of parole."
However, he admitted the parole board might not look past another homicide he had been convicted of before the 1973 slaying of the retired lieutenant colonel.
Durrough said he'd shot a man who was beating his wife and got five years for that crime.
"Yes, we were violent when we got here, but I'm not violent anymore," he said. "If I get out, I am going to spend my time with my grandkids and family."
Rissie Owens, presiding officer of Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said there long has been a misconception that offenders are entering the Texas prison system young and staying until they are old. In reality, many enter prison late in life to begin serving their sentences for crimes they committed late in life, Ms. Owens said.
"Forty-five percent of all prison and state jail inmates received have been 55 and older at the time they entered prison to serve their sentences," she said. "It also appears that these older inmates are serving sentences for violent offenses as almost 6 percent of those 55 and older have sentences for crimes ranging from homicide, kidnapping, sexual assault, sexual assault of a child, robbery and assault/terroristic threats."
Ms. Owens said numerous factors are reviewed during parole decisions.
"Age is one factor, but we do not just focus on the age of each offender," she said. "The numbers indicate that there have been more offenders received at TDCJ in the age group 55 to 60 than any other age group at the time of prison entry."
Ms. Williams said offenders who have committed rape, murder or other violent crimes usually are ineligible for parole, despite their medical conditions.
"We look at their medical issues, and we say we feel that he could go home ... well, depending on the crime they have committed ..." she said. "At the same token, you do have a lot of offenders who are here for 20 years, and they are already 70 years old with a debilitating disease or cancer that they're not going to get cured from.
"It would look better to be able to send them home to have those services provided by their families by their insurance, but they can't leave because of the crime they have committed."
Whitmire said each case should be examined on its merit and not as a whole.
"This is not rocket science stuff, but you can do something short of spending $40,000 to $70,000 per year on keeping a dying inmate locked up," he said.
Jimerson, leaning forward on his desk, quickly decried Whitmire's statements.
"What Whitmire should do is go to Washington and do something to change the laws so inmates don't get Cadillac health care and get the same care they would likely get on the outside," Jimerson said. "Ultimately, it just comes down to some people being so evil they need to be locked up."
Jimerson added that if an offender is allowed to be released, taxpayers likely would foot the medical bill.
"They would just switch over from the state to the federal roll ..." he said.
