Geriatric correctional facilities; establishment as a pilot project; report

A. In order to find ways to limit potentially high costs, to reduce the pressure on available high level security prison facilities, and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the correctional process relative to older prisoners, the state, through the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, shall undertake a planning process for the proper management of an increasingly older prison population. B. At a minimum, the planning process required in this Section, shall include: (1) A review of the status of the existing long-term adult prison population with regard to: (a) Age. (b) Health. (c) Projected health care needs. (d) Level of risk for violence or escape. (2) A review of the mechanisms used to manage the incarceration of and health care needs of the geriatric long-term prisoner. (3) A review of the alternatives to maintaining geriatric long-term prisoners in traditional prison settings. (4) The conduct of a pilot project using an alternative prison setting, which pilot shall include the use of any state-owned facility available to house geriatric prisoners who present a low risk of violence or escape with a concomitant reduction in the level of security and an increase in the level of preventive health care. (5) A summary and comparison of the anticipatable costs, short and long-term, of continuing traditional prison maintenance of the long-term geriatric prisoner versus the alternate presented by the pilot project required in Paragraph (4) of this Subsection. (6) Report of the information generated as required in this Subsection to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget along with the department's recommendations regarding action. The first report required by this Paragraph shall be submitted no later than one year after the establishment of the pilot project. Revisions or further reporting may occur thereafter as the department deems necessary.