再Old prisoners, March 2nd 2013 P56 高齢受刑者の増加と対策
(前略) The main cause is not crime rates (which are mostly falling) but harsher sentences and less parole - plus an aging population. Another, says Azrini Wahidin of Belfast University, is that better forensic science has fuelled a ゛phenomenal゛clear-up rate of long-ago crimes. That catches now-elderly malefactors. Locking up old people is costly. In 2012 Human Rights Watch, a campaigning and research outfit, estimated that jails spend up to nine times more on an aging convict than on a typical prisoner. In Britain more than 80% of convicts over 60 have a chronic illness or disability. Yet only Norwich prison has a 16-bed end-of-life unit, in operation since 2005. Britain's only elderly prison wing, completed with stairlift, is at Kingston, near Portsmouth. Deafness, osteoporosis and dementia need nursing-home care - and a handful of jails are starting to offer it. In December 2012 Rimutaka prison, New Zealand's biggest, opened the country's first unit for vulnerable inmates. Fishkill prison in New York created a dementia unit in 2007. Japan's Onomichi prison has equipped geriatric cells with rubber floors for the incontinent and ramps for the disabled. Stuart Ware, who set up a support network for elderly British inmates while one himself, recalls inadequate medical care by a prison medic dubbed ゛Dr Death゛by his patients. The National Health Service now deals with British prisons. But non-medical social care falls through the cracks, says Eoin McLennan Murray, president of the Prison Governors Association. Without specialist help, prison guards or fellow inmates step in. Will Styles, governor of Norwich prison, says officer roles are shifting from control to care. Old inmates who prefer ゛a less boisterous life゛can apply for a cell in the new ゛mature gentlemen's゛wing. Waiting lists are long. But the spiral staircases and narrow doors of many British prisons, built for youthful villains in the 19th century, hinder old bones and wheelchairs. In 2001 a British watchdog found that only 14% of elderly inmates lived in ground floor cells. Few staff are trained to wash, dress and feed weak bodies. An ex-governor admits ゛they just don't have the time゛. Brie Williams, an American geriatrician, says many jailers mistake mild dementia, hard to spot in a regimented environment, for stroppiness. Segregated jails for the elmerly, such as True Grit in Nevada, which offers wheelchair aerobics and crnchet classes, limit victimisation. But most jails favour mixed-age populations, as do many old-timers. They also provide a stabilising force in the prison environment, says Seena Fazel, a psychiatrist at Oxford University. At the California Men's Colony, ゛Gold Coats゛- convicts with spotless prison records - are trained to assist demented inmates in showering and changing incontinence pads. The ゛Silver Fox゛programme at Central California Women's Facility lets older women take shortcuts through buildings and have extra time for laundry, although handcuffs and shackles must be worn off-site. Given scanty budgets and staff cuts, Mr McLennan Murray thinks Britain should follow America's lead in training fit prisoners as carers. Others say prison should be seen as a scarce commodity. The American Civil Liberties Union, a lobby group, wants fairer medical parole to discharge frail prisoners early. Electronic monitering may work if the risk of reoffending is low. Governments need to hurry：doing time ages inmates at twice the natural rate.
