Ohio's aging inmates costing taxpayers

Ohio's prison system is bracing for a gray wave of elderly inmates with increasingly complex medical problems. The state already spends $193 million a year on medical costs in prisons and the need for medical care is likely to increase as the system sees more inmates over age 50 who are serving long sentences. Not only are current inmates getting older but more people coming into the system are age 50 and above. They include Earl Simone, a priest from Huber Heights, convicted of theft and now housed at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. Sitting in a wheelchair, Simone told the I-Team he has had multiple medical problems.

" I have had a couple of heart attacks. I get all the care," Simone said. He added many inmates come in with health problems that can be common to people who are much older. "You have some people you are 55 going on 80," Simone said.

After much study and planning the prison system is moving to get ahead of the gray wave and meet the challenge head-on. The plan includes expansion of the medical center in Columbus and construction of a new facility at the Pickaway correctional Institution (PCI) in Orient, Ohio south of Columbus. Springfield native Darryl May of the staff at PCI said the new building will be on the site of an old prison in Orient that currently is being torn down.

"We're on the cutting edge and when we have the opportunity to build, we have the geriatric population in mind," May said.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, in a one-on-one interview with the I-Team, said there is a lot of money involved, but the state cannot just release inmates because they are sick or elderly.

It's a tough one. We're fighting demographics. As people get older they generally don't get healthier," Kasich said.

He supports the plan to prepare now for the growing elderly inmate population. Part of the solution, Kasich said, is to find a way to reduce the overall prison population.

"Forget politics. How do you keep the public safe? How do you address the aging population? How many people should be in these prisons?" Kasich said.

Those are all questions that will be facing the next administration when Kasich leaves office in January, 2019. In response, Earl Simone, who turns 78 years old this month, said the administration is on the right track when it comes to planning ahead. He urged them to take action before the gray wave turns into a tsunami of elderly inmates.

"Address it ahead of time. Incrementally insert it...put it into the budget. That way it flows rather than being a crisis," Simone said.

His prison term expires in August of 2021.