Old and sick behind bars

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/27/5 | Editor

[SmithL]

[digger48]

poor little old murderers, thugs, and thieves. Those juries and judges didn't really mean to keep you incarcerated if you got sick. That's no fair

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

We need to keep criminals behind bars, even better would be to put them in tent cities with no color cable TV.

[JRios1968]

has resulted in the continuing incarceration of thousands of ailing and aging inmates, most of whom present little or no threat to public safety.

They present little to no threat to public safety, precisely because they are put away for life!

[mountainlyons]

Our system is not perfect but at least the old and feeble are not executed like some countries.

[wallcrawlr]

tent cities in Death Valley. thats whats needed.

[Thebaddog]

The ironical thang to these writers is that these inmates don't want to leave at this point.

[Dog Gone]

In mid-September, the Vacaville facility opened the first licensed elderly care unit in a California prison. It offers an even higher level of care than a regular nursing home to inmates who can no longer care for themselves.

That's good news. When I reach the age when I will need nursing care, I will visit California and commit a serious crime.

[o_zarkman44]

cry me a liberal river

[Thebaddog]

The idea of killing the old and infirm could be the assisted suicide policy of Oregon. Think of it, would the powers behind articles like this support euthanizing these inmates when it got to be too expensive to house them with geriatric care?

[11Bush]

I struggle every day to take care of my 80 year old, WWII veteran, retired LEO, father. He suffers from Parkinson's, and most days he is not really aware of his surroundings. It breaks my heart. These people get care that I could never afford for my father and their total contribution to society is being a criminal.

I could care less about their suffering, and in the mood I'm in after reading this drivel the criminals should thank God I'm not in charge of their care.

Maybe my dad can rob a bank and live the good life.

[RVN Airplane Driver]

We need to keep criminals behind bars, even better would be to put them in tent cities with no color cable TV.

We need to do that here in Texas for sure. Lots of room out in West Texas....

[digger48]

um.....sarcasm?

[mtbopfuyn]

That's good news. When I reach the age when I will need nursing care, I will visit California and commit a serious crime.

Let me know and I'll drive the getaway car real slow for us. Heck, free medical, free dental, free room and board, free arts and crafts, free continuing education, free legal, all the books I can read, and free HBO!

[11Bush]

Heck, free medical, free dental, free room and board, free arts and crafts, free continuing education, free legal, all the books I can read, and free HBO!

And all the sex your cellmate wants.

[claudiustg]

---The state should also consider granting "compassionate release" to feeble or dying inmates who have already served the fixed portions of their sentence, and are eligible for parole. Continuing to incarcerate them, even in model programs like those at Vacaville, amounts to unnecessarily cruel punishment and disregards the spiraling costs being inflicted on California taxpayers. ---

Where else would they go? Are we going to put them up in condos down by the local county hospital? Or do we just let them out on the streets of San Francisco? Brainless liberal do-goodism at it's finest.

[muir_redwoods]

This is the other side of the death penalty debate for all of those who think life sentences are less expensive than the needle.

Granted not all who are aging and sick and dying would have received the death penalty but a fair number who would have are now costing us $$$ as they lay dying

[PLMerite]

This is what happens when you don't execute criminals. Life without parole means life, and sometimes it's a long one.

[Racehorse]

The state should also consider granting "compassionate release" to feeble or dying inmates who have already served the fixed portions of their sentence, and are eligible for parole. Continuing to incarcerate them, even in model programs like those at Vacaville, amounts to unnecessarily cruel punishment and disregards the spiraling costs being inflicted on California taxpayers.

Wonder where the feeble and the dying will receive their medical care following compassionate release, so that California taxpayers are spared those spiraling costs?

This writer doesn't seem to want to take his article pass the walls of the correctional system.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The unexamined assumption is that if these people were "freed" from prison they would not be a burden on the public. Clearly, they'd just be moved from the prison wing of the hospital to the "charity" wing.