Half could be freed soon because their sentences expire between now and 2004. But many others are serving sentences that do not allow early release. Before they die in prison, many will suffer mental and physical diseases that will require intense treatment. One of the prisoners at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna who is suffering from dementia is 89, the oldest man in the system. Taylor points out that the prison population is older both chronologically and biologically.
All prisoners undergo health screening as soon as they are admitted.
The correction system also drug-tests all prisoners once a year, tests the staff randomly, and conducts a variety of searches. One answer to an aging and ill prison population lies in a little applied section of Title 11, the Delaware Criminal Code. A critically ill prisoner would probably be no threat to a community, where there might have better facilities for treatment or family willing to care for dying relatives in their last days or years. Harry F. Themal has been writing for The News Journal since 1959.