{"id":754,"date":"2026-07-31T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=754"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:12:11","slug":"americas-crisis-of-death-by-incarceration-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=754","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Crisis of \u201cDeath by Incarceration\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald \u201cDon\u201d Snook is 73. He has been in prison for 52 years. Now incarcerated in Washington\u2019s Stafford Creek Correctional Center, he wears compression socks and spends his days in a wheelchair, playing Sudoku on his prison-issued tablet. Snook has survived four strokes and lives with a chronic lung disease. He has an 80 percent blockage on the left side of his heart that can\u2019t be treated, as he is too weak to recover from surgery.<\/p>\n

Read more Abdul El-Sayed Knows Just How to Beat Billionaire-Funded Republicans<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2019, Snook was diagnosed with colon cancer, which spread to his lymph nodes. He recovered, only to be diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

Washington State prisons have an Emergency Medical Placement program, which allows some seriously ill incarcerated people to complete their sentences in community-based medical institutions. But because Snook is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, he is not eligible. He has waited months for some medical appointments and relied on younger men in the prison to help him eat and walk when no nurses were around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re tryna kill me, I believe that,\u201d Snook said.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s incarcerated population is getting older\u2014and sicker. Unspecialized staff, low budgets, and systemic medical neglect have led to a lack of basic medical care for aging prisoners like Snook.<\/p>\n

In prison, the health conditions that typically define someone as \u201celderly\u201d begin at 55, according to studies from the National Institutes of Health\u2014a full decade before most outside of prison begin to meet this definition. People aged 55 and over make up nearly 17 percent of the incarcerated population nationwide. In 1991, this number was just 3 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in their 50s in prison exhibit a lot of the physical and cognitive decline characteristics that people in their 70s and 80s face in the community,\u201d said Christian Gonzalez-Rivera, associate director of the Public Policy Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez-Rivera explained that both the stress of prison life and the conditions that led people to be imprisoned in the first place\u2014often trauma, mental illness, or poverty\u2014can lead to faster aging. \u201cBecause medical services are so inadequate in prison, by the time that people need care, they need a very high level of care and become a high-cost patient immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incarcerating a young person costs up to $70,000 annually. For an older person, this can soar up to between $100,000 and $240,000, according to a 2023 elder parole brief. These costs are funded entirely by the taxpayer, and often, people do not receive the level of healthcare they require.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you commit a crime and the judge says you\u2019re going to spend 20 years in prison, that is the sentence: taking away your liberties, your right to vote, to do other things,\u201d said Marc Stern, a correctional physician in Washington State. \u201cThe sentence didn\u2019t include losing your leg from diabetes or losing your life from poor care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snook was arrested in 1975 for taking his aunt\u2019s car without permission. He was placed in Washington State Penitentiary\u2014Walla Walla\u2014an infamously violent prison. Here, he says he was tortured by a fellow inmate, whom he killed in self-defense. In 1977, he killed another inmate. He was charged with first-degree aggravated murder, and is now sentenced to life without parole.<\/p>\n

Snook found blood in his stool in early 2019. Doctors dismissed him, saying he had hemorrhoids. By the time he was finally diagnosed with colon cancer, it was Stage III.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Washington\u2019s Department of Corrections was for delaying cancer diagnosis and treatments by the state\u2019s Office of the Corrections Ombuds. The DOC declined to respond to a detailed list of questions from The Xylom<\/em> regarding Snook\u2019s health, explaining that HIPAA prevents them from discussing any incarcerated individual\u2019s personal health information.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the nation, in Pennsylvania, lives Irvin Moore. Now 79, Moore served 52 years for first-degree murder and aggravated robbery before being released in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical care in prison is horrendous,\u201d Moore said. \u201cAt best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lost so many friends to Stage IV cancers of all different sorts,\u201d he added. \u201cHow can a person get to that stage if they\u2019re being examined and checked regularly? I think for the last six or seven years, I may have had a checkup twice, at 75 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez-Rivera described this as an \u201cepidemic of misdiagnosis.\u201d He highlighted an example of one incarcerated person\u2019s stomach pains being treated with an over-the-counter medication like Pepto-Bismol. The pain turned out to be stomach cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSignifiers of chronic conditions that might be tested for and analyzed in community medical settings are just not flagged in time,\u201d Gonzalez-Rivera said.<\/p>\n

Stern, the Washington correctional physician, explained that due to budget constraints, diagnosis and care are often not provided by staff with the required qualifications. Conditions that require treatment from physicians are often left to physician assistants, and roles meant for registered nurses are handed to lower-paid practical nurses with only two years of training.<\/p>\n

Colin Creveling, a registered nurse supervisor at Laurel Highlands, a low-security prison in Pennsylvania, believes that these problems stem from a broader crisis in medical staffing nationwide, as well as the stigma of working in prisons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe medical field has been battered since Covid,\u201d Creveling said. \u201cThe staffing issue is not just in a prison, but anywhere. The issue with prison is, you don\u2019t go to nursing school and think, I\u2019m going to work in a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

When speaking about hospice care behind bars, both Moore and Snook responded with a bitter laugh. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no hospice care,\u201d Snook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame that I would have to even laugh at something like that, because it\u2019s no joke,\u201d Moore said. \u201cGuys lay in bed until they die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we call DBI,\u201d Moore continued. \u201cDeath by incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most states outsource prison healthcare to for-profit contractors, meaning profit shapes every level of care. Since the federal Affordable Care Act protections do not apply to prisons, incarcerated people are not guaranteed regular checkups, prescriptions, or access to doctors.<\/p>\n

Ruth Greenberg, a criminal defense lawyer who helped bring medical parole to Massachusetts, said that contractors often start by estimating the cost of an inmate\u2019s needs before treating them. If their care turns out to be more expensive than the estimate, there is no guarantee that the extra cost will be met.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, taking an individual to a hospital requires paying for at least two accompanying officers, sometimes with an overnight stay, explained Gonzalez-Rivera. This leads to bigger, more expensive procedures\u2019 being ignored or avoided. Snook\u2019s prostate cancer took 17 months to get treatment.<\/p>\n

Another example of cost-cutting is dental care: Removing a tooth is cheaper than a filling, so people are often left with missing teeth. Loretta Pierre\u2014who has been in prison in Mississippi for four decades\u2014once booked an appointment in 1997 and wasn\u2019t seen until 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my teeth are falling apart,\u201d Pierre said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that I\u2019m gonna have to take care of whenever I get out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This lack of basic medical attention leaves individuals with no alternatives for finding or receiving healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho can you complain to?\u201d Moore, the formerly incarcerated man from Pennsylvania, asked. \u201cIt\u2019s like policing the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are such a punitive country,\u201d said Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, a national policy resource center. \u201cWe\u2019re really the only country in the world that keeps people locked up so many years. We are getting so used to that here that we forget that that\u2019s not normal and other countries look at us like we\u2019re crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, a report from The Sentencing Project found that around 40 percent of incarcerated individuals in the United States\u2014that\u2019s 600,000 people\u2014were imprisoned without any legitimate public safety justification. Moreover, of the entire world\u2019s life-without-parole population is behind American bars.<\/p>\n

In countries like Finland, Germany, and Norway, prisons promote rehabilitation with shorter sentences. In turn, they see lower rates of recidivism and violence. Experts have suggested that there is no benefit to longer, more punitive sentences.<\/p>\n

Read more America\u2019s Crisis of \u201cDeath by Incarceration\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have much more progressive mindsets and systems,\u201d Carole Cafferty, who worked in Massachusetts jails for over 30 years, said of these countries. \u201cThey incarcerate people for the sake of rehabilitation and use restorative justice practices. We incarcerate people for the sake of punishment and retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenberg explained that she has had multiple clients who died shortly after their compassionate release applications were denied. \u201cThere\u2019s all these really sick people there in wheelchairs, on dialysis four times a week,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re paralyzed from the waist down, they have pancreatic cancer, very sick people, and the commissioner is saying, too dangerous to release.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those struggling to understand compassionate release, Cafferty argued that improved victim services could build ground for empathy. She explained that families may then be better equipped to cope with loss, grief, and what Cafferty calls \u201cretributive anger,\u201d where families wish to keep people locked up even when it no longer serves a purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf victims had more services and help, we would probably get a lot more people paroled, and medically paroled, so they can die with dignity\u2014at home or in a hospice facility\u2014or turn their medical issues around and have a second chance,\u201d Cafferty said.<\/p>\n

Shneaqua Purvis\u2019<\/strong>s sister was shot and killed by a stray bullet in 2002. After her sister\u2019s assailant completed a manslaughter sentence and was released, Purvis began mentoring him. She later testified before the New York State Senate in support of the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills, which seek to expand parole eligibility and reform parole decision-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice to me means that he goes on to help prevent other acts of violence from happening,\u201d she in her testimony.<\/p>\n

Luz Marquez Benbow also testified in favor of these bills after being sexually assaulted three times in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrisons are inherently violent institutions,\u201d Benbow wrote. \u201cTo get at the root of such violence demands that we invest in supporting real accountability, which means fundamentally changing one\u2019s behavior and giving back\u2014not dying in a cage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kirkpatrick, who was incarcerated alongside Snook for around 17 years, says Snook is one example of someone who no longer needs to be in prison. \u201cIf they let him go, he wouldn\u2019t be a very productive member of society, but not destructive either. He\u2019d just sit with his plants on a porch,\u201d Kirkpatrick said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

At Stafford Creek, Snook is holding on. He\u2019s noticed that he needs to write things down now to remember them, so he plays Sudoku to keep his mind sharp. He can\u2019t leave his room without his wheelchair and is constantly in \u201cexcruciating pain.\u201d His only treatment, currently, is three Tylenol pills a day.<\/p>\n

As we spoke on the phone, Snook sat alone in his cell. He described his door, a little wider than others to fit his wheelchair through. He described his old cell in a different facility. He had 38 plants there.<\/p>\n

As of 2021, nearly 16,000 people in prison had spent over half of their lives behind bars. More than 18,000 people had served over 30 years, some incarcerated since 1965. The end of the Vietnam War, the fall of the USSR, the creation of the Internet, and the Covid-19 pandemic have flown by while people like Snook have remained incarcerated.<\/p>\n

Yet for 50- to 65-year-olds arrest rates hover around 2 percent. That drops to almost 0 percent for people over 65. Greenberg explained that because of this evidence, personal emotion shouldn\u2019t play a role in compassionate release decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody killed my husband, my daughter, I\u2019d want them to die in prison too,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cBut that\u2019s a different question, what a person feels and what the state should do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Blackwell, an award-winning incarcerated journalist and Nation<\/em> contributor who spent time in the same facility as Snook, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never met a single one of those individuals, in their 70s and 80s, that would cause any harm if they were to go home,\u201d Blackwell said. \u201cMost of them would go home and sit in a wheelchair and just be around their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studies found that incarcerated individuals can change by developing hope, building positive bonds with others, and changing their outlook on life. Many people describe feeling regret, seeing things differently, and becoming calmer, less impulsive versions of their younger selves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first met Don, we were both not very likable people,\u201d Kirkpatrick said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve both grown in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

People like Snook and Moore were incarcerated in their early 20s. The prefrontal cortex\u2014the brain area responsible for moral reasoning and impulse control\u2014only fully develops by 25. The incidence of violent crime also decreases after 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy younger self\u2014or any other younger prisoner coming in\u2014I would advise they put the blinders on,\u201d said Snook. He spoke of the man he killed in 1977, who he says was a child rapist. \u201cWhile it stopped that particular person from harming children, others still did. You can\u2019t stop the sickness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snook says he has been on the \u201clow risk to reoffend\u201d list for 14 years, with almost 20 positive behavior observation evaluations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many people in [prison] that deserve a second chance,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t the same people that they necessarily are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snook\u2019s story shows what happens when a system is unwilling to acknowledge change.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see a lot of the older gentlemen, they\u2019ve been in prison so long that a lot of guys will look up to them,\u201d Blackwell said. \u201cThey get guidance from them. Especially the lifers because it\u2019s, like, the one thing they can give, right? Most of them know they\u2019re gonna die in here. They\u2019re always looking for ways to mentor young men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Moore is a student at Penn State University, working toward an undergraduate degree in Rehabilitation and Human Services. Pierre still hopes to go to the dentist when she is released. She is currently no closer to finding out when that will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need leaders, we need people in positions of power and authority to ensure that people are treated justly, people are treated humanely,\u201d Moore said. \u201cCost cannot be the overriding priority, because if it is, people will be crushed. People will not be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snook works as a game porter, keeping track of all the games people in the prison have access to.<\/p>\n

While he was in isolation in Walla Walla, most of his friends were sparrows. They\u2019d get caught in the barbed wire of the prison, and he\u2019d clean them up and splint their wings. He made them nests from his T-shirt and fed them pieces of bread.<\/p>\n

He named most of the sparrows Chance.<\/p>\n

When the sparrows\u2019 wings healed, Snook would take them outside and set them free.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Lethal Ad-Libbing in Iraq Enters Its Most Dangerous Phase<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica\u2019s Crisis of \u201cDeath by Incarceration\u201d - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=754\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America\u2019s Crisis of \u201cDeath by Incarceration\u201d - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=754\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T13:12:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"America\u2019s Crisis of \u201cDeath by Incarceration\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T13:12:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754\"},\"wordCount\":2516,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/ea3ca3c37318be588a510989b03df9cf.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=754\",\"name\":\"America\u2019s Crisis of \u201cDeath by Incarceration\u201d - 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