Why Are we Keeping Old Ladies Locked Up in Prison?

CORONA, Calif. -- Last month, prisoner Number W 41465 passed away, her greatest wish unfulfilled: to die a free person.

Eighty-eight years old, nearly blind and deaf, her mind enfeebled by Alzheimer's and in the terminal stages of kidney failure, Helen Loheac had hoped to spend her last days at Crossroads, Inc., a transitional home for formerly incarcerated women in Claremont, Calif. For 10 years, Crossroads had been waiting to take her in.

But a few months ago, when Loheac shuffled before the parole board seeking compassionate release, after serving nearly 19 years behind bars on a conspiracy-to-murder conviction, the board told her she would be a risk to public safety if she were freed.

On Jan. 5, Loheac, the oldest female inmate in California's prison system, died of pneumonia in a hospital near the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, where she had been incarcerated. She was shackled at her waist and ankles, two guards at her bedside.

Loheac, known for her sharp tongue and wit, has become the poster person for the widespread practice in California's prisons of inhumanely incarcerating the elderly, some of whose bodies are so withered that even simple daily chores become overwhelming.

"It's a terrible injustice, what's going on in those prisons," said Gloria Killian, a former inmate of the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Corona, and now a fierce prisoners' rights advocate. "There's nothing worse than being sick and being in prison.

"These people are not a threat to society. They couldn't hurt a fly if they wanted to. And besides, it's so expensive to keep them incarcerated."

Inmates over age 55 cost taxpayers two to three times the cost of younger prisoners, who average $35,000 a year. Dee Mariano, 59, said that in the 11 years she spent in California prisons, the state spent about $70,000 a year on medications and treatment for her chronic lung disease and degenerative bone disease. Now, it costs her only $17,000, with the state and federal governments sharing the cost.

"They were spending about $250,000 a year on Helen, if you include the cost of two prison guards who would always accompany her when she went to the hospital for dialysis about three times a week," said Killian, who is about to launch the Helen Loheac Memorial Release Project to help elderly women prisoners live and die in dignity.

Prisoners' rights groups say there is a reluctance on the part of the State Board of Prison Terms to release prisoners when they are due for parole, in clear violation of the California Penal Code.

"The board generally finds no more than 4 percent of the prisoners suitable for parole," said Marisa Gonzales, a staff attorney at the San Francisco-based non-profit, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC).

The few who get the nod from the board then must be approved for parole by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, they say, wants to please victims' rights groups and be viewed as tough on crime.

"The board gives us a release date, and the governor takes it away," said Jane Benson, 60, a prisoner of 22 years at CIW, who succeeded in persuading the parole board to free her the fourth time she came up for parole. But she said her luck ran out when her papers reached the governor's desk.

Crossroads executive director Sister Terry Dodge believes that denying older women parole after they've done their time "is just political.

"They mature out of criminal behavior," she said.

Indeed, federal studies show that the recidivism rate for prisoners over 55 is between 2 and 4 percent, according to Heidi Strupp, an advocacy coordinator with LSPC.

Meanwhile, the graying of the prison population mirrors that of the general population. With tougher sentencing laws, it is projected that by 2030 there will be 33,000 geriatric prisoners in California alone, costing the state at least a $1 billion a year. There are currently 532 women 55 and over in the state's three prisons - CIF, Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) and Central California Women's Facility (CCWF).