The Crisis of African American Incarceration and Aging

The mass incarceration of the African American male in the U.S. penal system is a known and unfortunate trend that has ravaged the family unit, a pattern that mostly occurs in poor urban communities. Disproportionate African American incarceration has many implications for families and society, especially with our aging population. 

African American Incarceration Statistics  

While making up only 12.8% of the U.S. population, African American males make up 44% of the state and federal prison populations. Incarceration rates for African Americans are 5 times that of whites.  African Americans also make up about 12.5% of illicit drug users in the United States but account for 29% of all drug related offenses.  

This unbalanced incarceration towards African Americans has caused many social, financial and health related problems to the incarcerated as well the poor communities they come from.  

Early Challenges

Before incarceration, many African American males come from poor communities with limited resources. Education is lacking which leads to low employment and lack of job- related skills.  

Single parent homes the norm due to the increased rate of incarceration in these communities.  Often times, these men come from broken families with little stability.  With such familial instability and lack of financial resources

Challenges in Prison

Once in prison, these African American males face a new set of challenges.  

Accelerated Aging

Research has shown that prison life promotes “accelerated aging” where the biological/physiological age of those incarcerated is much greater than their chronological age.  This means that prisoners’ bodies and health condition makes them “older” then they actually are.  

While it is not known if this “accelerated aging” is due to risk factors prior to prison or due to the prison experience, it is clear that incarcerated persons have a host of risk factors prior to and during their prison experience: poor health, substance abuse, traumatic brain injury, limited education, low socio-economic status, mental health problems, poor family environments, etc.  

When you add on the stress of the incarceration experience, it is no wonder that this “accelerated aging” is a known phenomenon.  Known causes of stress in the prison system is violence in their immediate environment, social isolation from friends and family, lack of intellectual stimulation, financial hardships, and “supermax” isolation.  

Family Isolation

During incarceration, prisoners are generally socially isolated from family due to the geography of the prisons, high cost of collect calls to the prisons, and stigmatization faced by family members in the visitation process. 

Data has shown that 45% of inmates lose contact with their families due to the challenges faced with visiting their incarcerated family member.  

A silver lining in this is that African American children are more likely than their Caucasian and Hispanic counterparts to keep in contact with their incarcerated father through phone or mail. But, this doesn’t come close to negating the negative effects of incarceration. 

Marital Relationships

Marital relationships are also at greatest risk of divorce during incarceration with about 22% of inmates divorcing or separating during their incarcerations. Chances are also high that a non-incarcerated spouse will look for other romantic partners during this time.  

Oftentimes, these relationships are already troubled prior to prison; the incarceration becomes the “final straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Mental Health Challenges

In addition to being separated from the emotional support of their loved ones, prisoners face more challenges during their incarceration: loss of freedom/autonomy, sparse availability of material possessions, lack of intellectual stimulation, and lack of engaging and meaningful work.  

The loss of rights and the mind-numbing schedule prisoners are exposed to begin to negatively affect their mental health. The longer prisoners are exposed to the prison environment, the more likely they are to become “institutionalized” (or “prisonization”) and the more challenging their reintegration into society becomes when/if they are released from prison.  

This process of institutionalization begins with a dependence on institutional structure where the day to day activities of inmates are closely monitored.  

• Hypervigilance to their environment begins and interpersonal distrust and suspicion increases.  
• Next, emotional over-control (suppression of emotional responses to their environment) leads to alienation and psychological distancing.  
• This leads to social withdrawal and isolation.  

To survive incarceration, prisoners must incorporate the exploitive norms of prison culture.  All of these factors eventually lead to a decreased sense of self-worth and personal value and may lead to rage, psychosis, depression, and even suicide.  Often times the prisoner does not even realize they are moving through the institutionalization process until it is too late.  

Physical Health Problems

In addition to the decline in mental health, prisoners are also dealing with chronic medical conditions:  15% of jailed inmates and 22% of prisoners are known to have tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and AIDS/HIV.  

This combination of chronic medical conditions and mental health decline contributes to “accelerated aging.”  

Access to healthcare and prison infrastructure may also affect the health of prisoners: aging facilities, hygiene issues, lack of timely medications, and even errors in administering medications can negatively affect the physical health of the prisoners especially in in the geriatric prison population.

Aging Prisoners

A growing trend in the U.S. prison system nationwide (and around the world as well) is the aging prison population. African American males, because they make up such large number of the incarcerated, are affected more than other races.  

These geriatric prisoners face new challenges that their younger prisoners don’t face: mobility issues, loss of function in activities of daily life, and end of life care. 

As African Americans age in prison, they face a number of chronic health problems.  African American males have a 64% greater chance of Alzheimer’s, high rates of diabetes and obesity, stroke, hypertension, and cancer.  

To treat this aging population, especially for end of life care, palliative care (modeled after hospice care) for those dying in prison at an old age can be an option.  However, with the penal systems’ current focus on punishment (instead of rehabilitation), it may be challenging for inmates to receive proper care in their “golden years.”

Challenges After Prison

After incarceration, African American ex-prisoners come home to challenges to their reintegration into society: employability, housing stability, and social stigmatization.  Other factors may also prohibit reintegration: mental health issues, management of multiple chronic health conditions, lasting effects of “institutionalization,” and managing decompression from solitary confinement.  

Employment

Most pressing from released African American men is finding employment; they need financial resources to pay for life expenses.  However, criminal records reduce the likelihood of a job callback by nearly 50% with African American men being affected 2 times as much as other groups.  

The ex-convicts need a home to live in as well but without adequate employment they may remain dependent on family for their housing.  

Social Isolation

African American men are particularly vulnerable to social isolation as their lack of employability and economic resources causes them to become less desirable to the African American women in their communities.  

The stigmatization of incarceration adds to this undesirability as well, leading to a lack of perceived honesty and respectability.  These poor women also worried about infidelity as they may think this is inevitable.  

The result of this social stigmatization is that African American men are less likely to marry and may be at risk for social isolation once again.  

It is unfortunate for these African American men because with a marriage or stable romantic relationship they are more likely to stay out of jail and become contributing members of their communities; obligations to others help keep them from reoffending.

The Good News

As bad as it may seem, there is a silver lining to the challenges that prisoners face during and after their incarceration: their challenges have been clearly identified. 

 And once you have identified the challenges these prisoners face, you can work to provide solutions to help improve their situations.  

These changes, however, may require significant changes in the penal system’s operations and as well as policy changes at all levels of government.  There is hope because it has been shown that prisoners of best-run correctional facilities can return to free world with little psychological effects. 

Reducing Negative Effects through Diversion Programs

According to the Blue Print for Drug Policy (2013) the incarceration rates can be reduced by providing alternatives to prison or jail.  

For example, minor drug offenses can be handled using probation and/or drug courts.  This reduces the need for incarceration and the penal system’s resources.  

When combined with the use of various community-based social programs, these alternatives can help reduce ex-prisoners from reoffending and returning to jail. These community-based programs can help address and hopefully solve the core of the problem.  

Substance abuse programs, mental health counseling, and job skills training are some examples of the programs that are beneficial.  

Another benefit to “solving the problem” is that law enforcement resources can now be redeployed to focus on more serious criminal matters. It is estimated that 100,000 prisoners may be diverted if these programs are used in the community.  

Economic Solutions

In addition to alternative diversion programs, economic solutions will need to be provided so that ex-prisoners have access to provide housing and money to sustain their lives.  

These social programs can begin while incarcerated with skills-based job training or educational opportunities. The time while incarcerated can be used productively to prepare prisoners for life outside the prison walls.  

This economic stability will in turn help these ex-prisoners rebuild the sense of self-worth they lost while incarcerated. This then leads to increased social participation as these prisoners now serve a purpose in the community which leads to greater social integration in their communities.

Final Thoughts

With this connectedness to their community and family an increase of self-worth will make them more likely to be more attractive mates to the women in their community.  

The research has shown that long-lasting and compassionate relationships help to stabilize formerly incarcerated men. With these newfound relationships, based on obligations to their partner or child, can help reduce incarceration rates.  

It appears the message from the research is clear: LOVE is the answer.