Prison life sentences constitute elder abuse

Philadelphia

In the U.S., over 17% of the population — nearly 59 million people — were age 65 or older as of 2022. A significant number rely on Social Security as their sole income — on average below $25,000 annually. Around 10% have incomes under $10,000. 

With the Trump administration’s threatened cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and other support programs impacting seniors, conditions for the majority of this group will only worsen.

The 1,893,200 people incarcerated in the U.S. in county, state and federal prisons at the end of 2022 are already suffering from extreme neglect and dangerous “living” conditions. The number of incarcerated people was an increase of 25,100 from 2021. (statista.com)

In an article published in September 2023, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, currently incarcerated at Pennsylvania SCI Mahanoy, described prisons as “No Place for Old Men.” He wrote: “One of the vagaries of mass incarceration is the explosion of the elderly as part of the prison population. Today, men in their seventies and eighties roll around here in wheelchairs or hobble on walkers or even stroll with the help of canes. They have a host of health problems from diabetes, which is quite prevalent, [Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease] COPD, from heart attacks and ailments to cancer. 

“The American Public Health Association has advanced the novel idea that the elderly in prisons have been subjected to ‘elder abuse’ by the state in all the ways they have been mistreated and maltreated, for they are subjected to solitary confinement, to aching joints, to the natural frailties of old age. APHA has urged that elderly prisoners be made free of ‘elder abuse’ by release from confinement. They have urged this upon state, county, federal and territorial prisons, jails and institutions of detention.”

With extremely few exceptions, this is not happening. While elder abuse is a crime, prisons across the U.S. do it all the time.

Many incarcerees are sent to prison as juveniles on sentences that include “life without the chance of parole.” NPR’s Morning Edition notes: “People behind bars tend to age faster than people on the outside. For that reason, ‘geriatric’ in prison can mean someone as young as 50, though it varies by state.” (March 11, 2024)

 The number of state and federal incarcerated persons aged 50 or older has also increased five-fold from what it was thirty years ago. In 2022, this included over 286,900 people. (PubMed Central, April 17)

While the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right to health care, in 1976 the Supreme Court in Estelle v. Gamble found that deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of incarcerated people violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

This ruling had an impact on another landmark case involving Abu-Jamal when a federal district court judge, on Jan. 3, 2017, granted his request that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections provide him with direct-acting antiviral drugs to cure his chronic hepatitis C infection, contracted while he was imprisoned. This ruling opened the way for all other prisoners suffering from Hep C to be granted the same treatment.

June 8 support meeting

Around 40 people active in support work for Abu-Jamal participated in a hybrid meeting on June 8. They discussed the issue of institutional elder abuse as it has pertained to Mumia, who turned 71 on April 24, and other political prisoners, including Leonard Peltier whose federal prison sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden in February based on Peltier’s poor health. 

Due to multiple court rulings involving Abu-Jamal that have gone counter to established legal precedent, he has exhausted his legal appeals at this time. But rather than throwing in the towel, his supporters want to fight harder to get out information on Mumia and the legal frame-up. 

Towards this end, a demonstration will be held in Philadelphia on July 5, marking the 43rd year of his unjust sentence, to broaden awareness over the state’s police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct in the case, as well as elder abuse in Pennsylvania’s prisons. 

More information can be found at mobilization4mumia.com.