Aging in correctional custody: setting a policy agenda for older prisoner health care.
An exponential rise in the number of older prisoners is creating new and costly challenges for the criminal justice system, state economies, and communities to which older former prisoners return. We convened a meeting of 29 national experts in correctional health care, academic medicine, nursing, and civil rights to identify knowledge gaps and to propose a policy agenda to improve the care of older prisoners. The group identified 9 priority areas to be addressed: definition of the older prisoner, correctional staff training, definition of functional impairment in prison, recognition and assessment of dementia, recognition of the special needs of older women prisoners, geriatric housing units, issues for older adults upon release, medical early release, and prison-based palliative medicine programs.
Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA. brie.williams@ucsf.edu
Brie A
BA
Williams
Marc F
MF
Stern
Jeff
J
Mellow
Meredith
M
Safer
Robert B
RB
Greifinger
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006798:Housing / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000592:standards; D011329:Prisoners