At 94, California's oldest inmate still a 'lifer' - Los Angeles Times

One of the major challenges facing prisons and prison ministries is the growing number of elderly inmates. J. Michael Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times writes about 94 year old John Rodriguez, the oldest inmate in the California prison system. Rodriguez was convicted of murdering his wife in a drunken rage in 1981. He has spent most of the intervening years at California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo, and has been recommended for parole six times. Three different governors have overruled those recommendations.

The story of John Rodriguez is set against the backdrop of a prison system in which the population is getting dramatically older, facilities are overcrowded and the mechanism to parole inmates is weighted down by bureaucracy and antiquated procedures — so much so that California is under federal court order to speed up the process to resolve the backlog.

The problem facing the prison system was perhaps summed up best — if inadvertently — by Lawrence Morrison, an L.A. County deputy district attorney, in his argument last year against Rodriguez's release: "This is a difficult case of the type of which the board and governors and prosecutors are going to be facing with an increasing aging population," he said. "Looking at the inmate right now sitting in a wheelchair, he looks like everybody's grandparents."

More and more will be looking like Rodriguez in the coming years. One recent projection is that by 2030, California will have 33,000 geriatric prisoners, compared with about 9,500 now. The increases are attributable to longer sentences, mandatory minimum-sentencing laws and tighter parole policies.

According to one study, the average cost of housing a geriatric prisoner — defined as 55 or older — is about $70,000, two to three times the cost for a younger inmate. The bill climbs even higher for those with serious physical and mental disabilities.