The Department of Corrections has begun preliminary talks with a nursing home operator concerning the possibility of contracting with a facility to house aging state inmates, the Senate Public Safety Committee was told Tuesday.
Dr. William Cooper, the department’s chief medical officer, said the department was approached by a nursing home operations firm about the possibility of contracting with the department. The discussions are in the very early stages.
According to Wes Bledsoe, a nursing home client advocate with the group A Perfect Cause, legislation passed in 2008 permits the department of contract with a nursing home for the housing registered sex offenders. “That could be expanded to cover other offenders,” he said.
The men testified during a hearing on Interim Study S14-039, a study on the impact of an aging prison population at the Department of Corrections. The study was requested by Sen. Wayne Shaw, R-Grove.
The Journal of American Medicine reports that the aging population in American prisons is increasing health care costs and straining the prison system. The report says that mandatory sentencing, laws the require "three strikes and out" sentences, life without parole sentences are contributing to the aging population in prison.
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