COMMON SENSE RELEASE, NOT COMPASSIONATE RELEASE

It makes little sense to spend millions of dollars on feeble and infirm prison inmates who, if released, would pose no threat to the public’s safety

The other day I read about Alfred Stork being sentenced to life in prison by an Italian military court for his part in the 1943 massacre by German troops of 117 Italian soldiers in Cephalonia. Stork, now 90, was tired and convicted in absentia. Despite the enormity of his crime, under Italian law he will not serve any time in prison because of his age. Stork is still in Germany and, if extradited, would serve his remaining years in a home confinement.

That got me to thinking about the thousands of elderly American prison inmates serving life terms who, because of their advanced age, are feeble and infirm, thus costing millions of dollars to keep them alive in the nation’s prisons. Even though I am a law and order hardliner that makes little sense to me.

Prison reformers and liberal elites advocate the ‘compassionate release’ of feeble and terminally ill prison inmates. But release of convicts for compassionate reasons simply does not fly with, first and foremost, their crime victims, and it will not fly with the general public and elected office holders.

Let’s just take Charlie Manson as an example. Suppose he reaches the age of 90 and has become feeble and infirm. Charlie, under no circumstances, is deserving of any compassion whatsoever. But keeping prisoners like a 90-year-old Manson alive in prison is much more costly than confining younger and healthy inmates. It just does not make any sense to spend all that money on Manson when, because of his infirmity, he can no longer pose any threat to the public’s safety.

So, hardliner that I am, let me suggest we seriously consider what I would call ‘Common Sense’ releases to home confinement for the feeble and infirm inmates serving life terms in American prisons. They could be released to a family member or foster family willing to care for them. Or, if they need constant attention, they could be released to a nursing home. Paying the family member, foster families or nursing homes for their upkeep would be significantly less costly than maintaining them in prison.

By the time inmates have been in prison for years and become feeble and infirm, their victims will have gotten their pound of flesh. There is no reward to the criminal released under those circumstances when he has little or no quality of life. And yes, I would even release a 90-year-old Charlie Manson under those circumstances.