Canada's prisons are not supposed to be nursing homes, hospices or general hospitals — Michael's essay

Francis McLaughlin was a convicted killer who had been sentenced in 1978. Since 1989, he had lived successfully on parole.

In the past few years, parole officials noticed a change in his behaviour. He had become cantankerous, forgetful. He had all the symptoms of dementia.

The parole board revoked his parole. He was taken to a prison in Abbotsford, B.C., where he died 10 months later.

Francis McLaughlin was 79.

Old age is no picnic. It can be marked by decline, mental and physical stress, illness after illness until the final days.

That's what we all face — on the outside. Imagine what old age is like for seniors in Canada's penitentiaries.

Add to the list of normal ills: fear of assault, loneliness, lack of care and attention, depression and a permanent feeling of hopelessness.

A couple of weeks ago, a joint report of the Correctional Investigator and the Canadian Human Rights Commission detailed the condition of aging prisoners in Canada's federal institutions.

It found that those inmates over age 65 are more likely to have chronic diseases than seniors who aren't in prison. Naturally, this has driven up healthcare costs.

Even more disturbing was the finding that many aged inmates remain in prison well past their parole eligibility dates even though they pose little risk to the  public.

Frankly, the report did not get the attention it merited.

A similar report by the Canadian Friends Service Committee — the Quakers — notes that the number of older inmates now exceeds 25 per cent of the total inmate population.

The Quakers underline the fact that in the last seven years, 254 inmates have died in federal prisons of natural causes.

Of these, 88 had applied for compassionate parole. None was released.

How to deal with aging prisoners is a major problem for Corrections Canada and will only get worse in the next few years.

The older the inmate, the greater the need for health services.

Canada's prisons are meant to contain men and women who have broken the law and have been sentenced. They are not supposed to be nursing homes, hospices or general hospitals.

Yet that is precisely what is happening.

Catherine Latimer, head of the John Howard Society said, "The prison system is not adequately designed to deal with many of the issues aging prisoners face — both the cognitive impairments and physical impairments."

She added, "If people are sufficiently senile that they can't remember the nature of their crime, what's the point in continuing to punish them for it?"

Interesting question.

If someone has been incarcerated for 40 years or more and is pushing 80, is sick, and is not a threat to the community, it makes little sense to keep that person behind bars.

He or she has been punished enough.

Prisons are nasty places. They house some pretty nasty people. But sooner or later, these people get out. How they are treated inside determines to a large extent how they will behave on the outside.

Older, sick inmates who are not a threat to anybody should be able to spend their last days in community settings, or palliative care facilities.

The joint report of the Human Rights Commission and the correctional investigator used the word "warehoused" to describe prison conditions for the elderly.

Two weeks ago at a public meeting, criminal defence lawyer Annamaria Enenator nailed it when she told her audience:

"The justice system convicts people and then forgets them."

Click 'listen' above to hear the full essay.