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US-AGING-PRISONERS-MAKE-UP-FASTEST-GROWING-SEGMENT-OF-NATION'S-P
CRANSTON, RI - DECEMBER 10: John Armstrong (his name has been changed at the request of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, both to protect him and the identity of people and victims associated with his crime), a prisoner at Rhode Island's John J. Moran Medium Security Prison, watches television during free time in his cell on December 10, 2013 in Cranston, Rhode Island. Armstrong, who is 61 and is currently in the most advanced stage (stage four) of Hepatitis C, has been in and out of prison since the late 1970s. The longest he served was 19 years for robbery (from a 25 year sentence), which lasted from 1987 until 2006. He said he used to rob people to buy cocaine. He was out of prison on probation for 16 months when he was found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon in 2007, which landed him back in jail. Prior to being thrown back in jail, Armstrong had planned on opening a barbershop. Of John J. Moran Medium Security prison's 1020 inmates, approximately 50 are 65 or older. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world - as of 2010 the national prison population was approximately 2.26 million people. According to a 2012 Human Rights Watch report, between 1995 and 2010, the total number of state and federal prisoners increased by 42%, while the number of prisoners 55-and-older skyrocketed by 282% to 124,400 prisoners. The reasons for the dramatic rise in the elderly incarcerated date back to the 1970s through the 1990s, when "tough on crime" policies were enacted and the "war on drugs" was declared. Since then, mandatory-minimum sentencing, three-strike laws and life-without-parole have become popular techniques to keep those in prison behind bars, causing a rapid growth in the prison populate - including the aging and elderly - even though national crime rates decline. Between 1984 and 2008, the number of prisoners serving life sentences more than quadrupled to over 140,000 people, according to The Sentencing Projec== FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==
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Detalii fotografie |
| Loc: |
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Cranston, Rhode Island, UNITED STATES |
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| Sursa: |
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AFP / Mediafax Foto |
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| Fotograf: |
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Andrew Burton |
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| Data: |
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11 Decembrie 2013 |
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| Dimensiuni: |
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3000 x 2000 (1.44 MB) |
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