age of 50 or over, we have about 3700 now, that's grown almost 200% in the last decade. and projections are we're going to continue to grow at about 45% a year. because of enhancements to punishments, tough on crime, 85% laws that require you to serve 85% before you're even eligible of parole and then the advent of life without parole. >> my name is pertorical hill. and my number is 48713. i received that january the 16th, 1948. >> pertalco has the oldest nment number in the state -- inmate number in the state.

66 years have been spent behind bars. he escaped six times. >> you're as good at escaping from prison as you are in? >> whenever my health was good. >> i can't remember the name of the little town where that u-haul trailer was -- >> what are you serving now, sentence? >> this sentence is a murder charge. >> how long ago? >> 1947. >> what's your sentence? >> life. >> which one are you? >> i'm up there. i come -- >> and this is what life met for pertarco now. a small section of a dormitory whicwith a few black and white photographs of his family. he's outlived all of them. >> extra consideration for release? >> yes i do. >> can you explain why? >> because they're harmless.

>> plutarco is not alone. in fact he's part of a growing american trend. in the last decade the number of prisoners has grown an astonishing 75%. the u.s. took a tough on crime approach. and the older a prisoner is the bigger financial drain they pose. an older inmate play cost about $75,000 a year to lock up. two to three times more than younger inmates. older inmates suffer functional diseases, major diseases and mental illness. >> my world wears white in a day of black fleet.

it holds bitter cold with its pal e purple teeth. wanting more more more. >> correctional center is oklahoma's largest women's prison. this state incarcerates more women, reading or writing poetry than they are but they're also convicted killers. >> smile with your broken teeth mourning in the morning to nothing but death, you bet we'll reap and it won'ting wedding white. >> i don't have a choice of what i eat. it would either kill or be killed.

>> and now, a techknow minute... >> something is killing america's bee population. >> what happened to this bee? >> scientists aren't sure what but beekeepers are reporting dramatic declines of 65% this year. >> the losses are astronomical >> that could have a devistating impact on agriculture. but a collection of resarchers are working hard to build a better bee. >> i'm just gonna roll my fingers forward... >> using artificial insemination to make strains of bee populations from across the globe, >> i'm trying to enhance what mother nature does >> the hope is to find a strain

that's resistant to whatever is killing america's bees. >> nobody in the world was able to freeze honey bee semen. >> for mor imformation on this and other techknow stories, visit our website at aljazeera.com/techknow don't miss techknow sundays 7:30et / 4:30pt on al jazeera america

>> and now a techknow minute... >> it's the ultimate race againt time. doctors preforming heart transplant surgery in just 6 hours before a donor organ is damaged by ice, used to keep it cold during transit. but this device could .change all that. it's called the organ care system, or... heart in a box. it works by hooking up the heart to this machine. it pumps it full of warm blood, and a formula containing a proprietary mix of nutrients. >> it's warm, >> it's warm, it's beating... it's functioning, it's just

functioning as if it's in your body. >> doctors are also seeing promising results, using the organ care system on other organs, such as lungs. >> for more information on this, and other techknow stories. visit our website at aljazeera.com/techknow don't miss techknow, sundays 7:30et / 4:30pt on al jazeera america >> fishkill correctional facility - 70 miles north of new york city. to address the needs of its growing elderly prison population, new york built the nation's first unit for the cognitively impaired. all these inmates have dementia. their average age is 63 and many have alzheimers. we've joined the founder and director of the unit, dr. edward sottile, as he does his rounds. fault lines is the first

television crew to be allowed here. [knock, knock, knock] >> mr. turner...how are you? how are you feeling today? today dr. sottile checks on 59 year old chris turner. serving a sentence for kidnapping and sodomy, he's also being punished for punching a nurse in the stomach. how are you doing with your arm motions? >> they seem to be a lot better now that you mention it... >> he came to us a couple of years ago with huntington's chorea. that is a genetic disease that is gradually progressive and the patient has these movements that are purposeless-he can't control his movement. and eventually, what happens is it affects his ability to swallow. and eventually, they deteriorate, they lose weight and they die. >> this unit houses 30 beds - and it's almost always full. >> mr. johnson...

>> yes sir... >> how are you? >> fine,thank you sir. >> how are you doing today? in the outside world, inmate robert johnson was a heavy gambler... >> donald trump flew me all over the world - hong kong and all over... >> you have to be kidding >> oh yeah...i'm not kidding you...i his private jet. - ...until his wife cancelled his credit line at the casinos. >> cause i promised her before i left the house, i would not use my credit line. i keep my word... but she didn't tell me i couldn't say i had a credit line. >> ok >> now he claims he doesn't remember shooting at her with a rifle. which raises the question, if prisoners with dementia can't remember the crimes they committed, how can they be rehabilitated? >> i had the same question. i can't control that. but not being able to control that, the best that we can do, as physicians and healthcare providers is to manage them in a way that is humane, that's compassionate, and the only way we can do that is by understanding their disease.

>> as the prison population in america continues to age, other states will undoubtedly need units like this one to look after inmates with deteriorating mental capacity, but at 100 thousand dollars a year per inmate, where is the money going to come from? at present, no one seems to have the answer. three years ago larry white was released from prison. he'd served a 32 year sentence for armed robbery and felony homicide. he's 72 now. after so long inside, he has struggled to adapt to life on the outside. >> i would get on the subway and i was so self-conscious that i would break out into a cold sweat. because it seemed to me that everybody knew that this guy had just come out of prison, that everyone was staring at me. and i would say

"what the (bleep) are you looking at? what the (bleep) is the matter?" (laughs)...you can't do that... >> while locked-up larry built social networks and programs for prisoners - trying to change the system from within. >> so i organized other prisoners first of all to change the conditions and to oppose how the guards and administration was treating us. that became a movement and it spread from one prison to another. >> now, larry is trying to continue that same work from the other side of the fence - advocating for compassionate release for older inmates. >> i'm a firm believe that anybody can change. now it may take some people longer than others to change. some people will die before they

do change. it's just that they didn't live long enough to change. but my whole life now is geared to going back to help those i left behind. that's my life. i would feel that loss if i couldn't go back at all... >> it's to the point that even though you're out, it's still in you. >> yeah, i miss it. i do. i don't tell people that, but i do.

on august 20th, al jazeera america introduced

>> and now a techknow minute... >> it's the ultimate race againt time. doctors preforming heart transplant surgery in just 6 hours before a donor organ is damaged by ice, used to keep it cold during transit. but this device could .change all that. it's called the organ care system, or... heart in a box. it works by hooking up the heart to this machine. it pumps it full of warm blood, and a formula containing a proprietary mix of nutrients. >> it's warm, >> it's warm, it's beating... it's functioning, it's just functioning as if it's in your body. >> doctors are also seeing promising results, using the organ care system on other organs, such as lungs. >> for more information on this, and other techknow stories. visit our website at aljazeera.com/techknow

don't miss techknow, sundays 7:30et / 4:30pt on al jazeera america >> unlike larry, many prisoners won't make it out alive. thousands of inmates will die behind bars in the united states this year. lewis young is afraid that he may be one of them. diagnosed with kidney cancer, lewis awaits his sentence in the hospital wing of philadelphia's detention center. >> to have cancer, to be in jail, and not to be around your family. you know, it's real scary. >> in lieu of family, lewis has phyllis taylor.

she's a correctional chaplain and has developed the hospice program here to help comfort dying prisoners. >> my hope is that if it's not possible to release the elders and to release the dying into society, that the prisons and jails become home-like. [praying] >> she popped out of the clear blue. she's like an angel to me right. and i started getting my proper medication, you know, they started giving me morphine... >> phyllis works with dozens of other dying patients across the state of pennsylvania. she believes everyone should be allowed to die with dignity. >> a lot of people would say, look they broke the law. they deserve to be there and if they die there, then that's the

choices they made. >> and i would say back 'each person has value. and there was something redemptive in each person. that nobody's a throw-away person. this is my community. i'm always going to be behind bars. i'm always going to be there. how can i help at least one other person so my life has meaning? >> well they call us og's og's...original gangsters... [laughs] >> at 59 kevin bartley is a member of the lifer's group at otisville correctional facility in new york. he is serving 15 years to life for his role in a murder during a convenience store robbery. >> we had a republican governor, that ran on crime and punishment and when he came in he said he didn't want no one with a violent crime to be released and that was the message he sent throughout the parole department and they took that very

seriously. >> kevin has earned privileges at the prison, he works freely in the storehouse bringing in goods from the outside world. he's been told that he is a perfect candidate for release but he's been denied parole every time he has gone before the board, instead he keeps getting "deuced". >> two years or deuce is the max they can hold you. i've been deuced 8 times. so i'm part of the 16 year over the minimum club. >> when's your next one? >> my next one is in november 2011. >> is that going to be your year? >> that's going to be my year. that's going to be my year. 31 years in the penitentiary and i will leave. >> kevin has used his time inside to better himself. he's received a master's degree in theology, learned sign language while working with deaf inmates.

>> keeping people incarcerated who are community ready. ready to go out here and be an asset to the community. to me it's crazy. why don't you release us now while we're still healthy and able to contribute? don't wait until we lose a leg or an arm or our minds... >> so while a crisis that few seem willing to face expands to alarming proportions, kevin and thousands of other older inmates like him will continue to grow old behind bars. >> you have more people locked up per capita than anywhere else in the civilized world, how can you do that? and you're always crying about how much money it costs. it's not solving your problems. >> we have to treat these people as human beings. they are human beings. and they deserve compassion, dignity and respect. and if you treat these people with that, then i think you're

doing the right thing. and i think that's the reason why we're here. >> you know you're in a place where loneliness will kill you. loneliness...even though i'm in an institution with 500 other guys, i'm still lonely. you're still lonely. lonely inside. (vo) al jazeera america we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. (vo) we pursue that story beyond the headline, past the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capitol. (vo) we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. (vo) and follow it no matter where it leads, all the way to you. al jazeera america. take a new look at news.

this is al jazeera america, live from new york city. i am tony harris with a look at today's top stories: contraceptives, healthcare and the supreme court. the latest challenge for the affordable care act. also, what a u.s. withdrawal might mean for the people of afghanistan: a big, ugly winter storm is affecting holiday travelers. when the skies clear, get ready for the celestial show of the decade. the latest dispute over the president's healthcare law is going to the