Should release more elderly inmates
parole hearings be held within six months of an inmate turning 60 and that risk assessment be more tailored to changes that come with aging. A strong plan for helping these inmates re-enter into society, such as stable housing and health care coverage, would also be required. These inmates would also have to have served 25% of their non-violent sentence or 50% of a sentence if they committed a violent crime.
There are some restrictions on whowould qualify. Those with life sentences (only 39% of prisoners over age 60 are serving life sentences) or offenses that don’t qualify for parole would not be eligible. Sex offenders also could not apply for release. Victims and their families would also be allowed to weigh in.
State officials don’t have to look far to see that releasing elderly patients is the right way to go. Just look at the Ungers — a group of prisoners who entered the correctional system as young men, were incarcerated an average of 39 years and then released after a 2012 court decision that found problems with jury instructions Maryland used during the period when they were tried. There has been about a 3% recidivism rate among this group of former inmates in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, compared to 40% for the rest of the prison population, according to a 2018 report by the Justice Policy Institute.
Their cases also show the state could likely go further with its release of elderly prisoners. Many of the Ungers were serving life sentences yet have lived non-criminal lives since being released. That would require broader changes in state law since Maryland remains one of three states where the governor’s signature is required to award parole to anyone serving a life sentence. No lifers have been released on parole in two decades, although governors have granted commutations.
Maryland isn’t the only state whose geriatric prison release program has had limited results. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis last year of such programs found that of the 47 states with processes to free such prisoners early or court rulings requiring them to do so, just three — Utah, Texas and Louisiana — released more than a dozen people in 2015.
Maryland state officials have a chance to do better, and we hope that they make the decision to do so.