The painful price of aging in prison

“Companion aides” share a room with elderly prisoners at Devens. Some low-security inmates are tasked with caring for elderly prisoners.

At Devens, incarcerated “companion aides” Tyrell Wells, left background, and Joshua Brandao assist an inmate in his 70s who suffered a stroke. Devens employs 60 nurses, along with social workers, dieticians, psychologists, dentists and physical therapists.

INSIDE COLEMAN PRISON, Fla.

Written by Sari Horwitz-May 2, 2015

Twenty-one years into his nearly 50-year sentence, the graying man steps inside his stark cell in the largest federal prison complex in America. He wears special medical boots because of a foot condition that makes walking feel as if he’s “stepping on a needle.” He has undergone tests for a suspected heart condition and sometimes experiences vertigo.

“I get dizzy sometimes when I’m walking,” says the 63-year-old inmate, Bruce Harrison. “One time, I just couldn’t get up.”

In 1994, Harrison and other members of the motorcycle group he belonged to were caught up in a drug sting by undercover federal agents, who asked them to move huge volumes of cocaine and marijuana. After taking the job, making several runs and each collecting $1,000, Harrison and the others were arrested and later convicted. When their sentences were handed down, however, jurors objected.

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