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	US: Number of Aging Prisoners Soaring by Jamie Fellner Human Rights Watch   Aging men and women are the most rapidly growing group in US prisons, and prison officials are hard-pressed to provide them appropriate housing and medical care, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Because of their higher rates of illness and impairments, older prisoners incur medical costs that are three to nine times as high as those for younger prisoners.   The 104-page report, “Old Behind Bars: The Aging Prison Population in the United States,” includes new data Human Rights Watch developed from a variety of federal and state sources that document dramatic increases in the number of older US prisoners.   Human Rights Watch found that the number of sentenced state and federal prisoners age 65 or older grew at 94 times the rate of the overall prison population between 2007 and 2010. The number of sentenced prisoners age 55 or older grew at six times the rate of the overall prison population between 1995 and 2010.   “Prisons were never designed to be geriatric facilities,” said Jamie Fellner, senior adviser to the US Program at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Yet US corrections officials now operate old age homes behind bars.”   Long sentences mean that many current prisoners will not leave prison until they become extremely old, if at all. Human Rights Watch found that almost 1 in 10 state prisoners (9.6 percent) is serving a life sentence. An additional 11.2 percent have sentences longer than 20 years.   Human Rights Watch visited nine states and 20 prisons to interview prison officials, corrections and gerontology experts, and prisoners. Human Rights Watch found officials scrambling to respond to the needs and vulnerabilities of older prisoners.   They are constrained, however, by straitened budgets, prison architecture not designed for common age-related disabilities, limited medical facilities and staff, lack of planning, lack of support from elected officials, and the press of day-to-day operations.   While serving time in prison can be hard for anyone, it is particularly challenging for the growing number of older prisoners who are frail, have mobility, hearing, and vision impairments, and are suffering chronic, disabling, and terminal illnesses or diminishing cognitive capacities, Human Rights Watch said.   Prison facilities, rules, and customs were created with younger inmates in mind, and they can pose special hardships for those who are well on in years.   * Visit the link below for more details. Visit the related web page
	Libya''s new authorities are struggling to assert control of all militia forces by Agencies   27 January 2012   "Several detainees have died after being subjected to torture in Libya in recent weeks and months amid torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters and loyalists," Amnesty said in a statement on Thursday.   It said its delegates met detainees held in Tripoli, in Misrata and in smaller towns such as Ghariyan who showed visible signs of torture inflicted in recent days and weeks.   "The torture is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities, as well by armed militias operating outside any legal framework," it said.   Donatella Rouvera, senior adviser at London-based Amnesty, said in the statement that it was "horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture".   "We are not aware of any proper investigations into cases of torture," she said.   Rouvera said the issue was aggravated as the police and judiciary remained "dysfunctional" in areas across Libya.   Doctors Without Borders, meanwhile, said it has suspended its work in Misrata.   "Detainees in the Libyan city of Misrata are being tortured and denied urgent medical care, leading the international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to suspend its operations in detention centres in Misrata," the group said.   It said its doctors were increasingly confronted with patients who suffered injuries caused by "torture" during questioning. "The interrogations were held outside the detention centres," it said.   MSF general director Christopher Stokes said some officials have sought to exploit and obstruct its work in Misrata.   "Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable," he said. "Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions."   On Wednesday, the UN special representative in Libya, Ian Martin, expressed concern about the militias, which he said were not under the control of the interim government.   Speaking to the UN Security Council, Martin said fighting in the Libyan town of Bani Walid this week - at one stage blamed on Gaddafi loyalists - had been caused by a clash between local people and a revolutionary brigade unit.   "Although authorities have successfully contained these and other more minor incidents that continue to take place across the country on a regular basis, there is the ever present possibility that similar outbreaks of violence could escalate," he said.   Libya''s new authorities are struggling to reintegrate tens of thousands of these militia fighters into the army and police.
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