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January 4, 2007

NPR story about elderly sex offender prisoners

Yesterday's broadcast of NPR's "All Things Considered" included this fascinating long segment entitled "Sex Offenders Fill Geriatric Wards of U.S. Prisons."  Here is how the story begins:

In the geriatric ward of Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands Prison, the floors are squeaky clean linoleum. The walls are painted in dull pastels. Dozens of inmates in hospital gowns line the hallways in wheelchairs, doing absolutely nothing.

Almost half of these men are sex offenders. They were once simply "dirty old men." Now, sex offenders in their 60s, 70s and 80s — like the men here — are a growing problem in the nation's prisons. Experts say it's the only crime that offenders are more likely to repeat with age. The result has been an explosion in the number of elderly men behind bars.

January 4, 2007 at 09:53 AM | Permalink

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NPR had an interesting piece about geriatric sex offenders. One of the interesting ideas explored is why some people become more likely to commit sex crimes as they get older:Susan King has been the prison psychologist at Laurel Highlands for [Read More]

Tracked on Jan 4, 2007 8:43:28 PM

Comments

Two years ago a very conservative committee chair in the Iowa legislature tried to move LWOP prisoners from a geriatric cell block into a nursing home. It was voted down by a nearly unanimous vote. I asked my legislator why she voted against it and she because they had committed violent crimes. I said "Mary in Iowa LWOP is the sentence for a class A felony and all class A felonies are violent crimes". Needless to say she was very embarrassed but what about the rest of those fools in the legislature.

Posted by: John Neff | Jan 4, 2007 3:10:56 PM

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