Older inmates have greater safety and medical needs than the average inmate. When mental institutions closed their doors, mentally ill people ended up in prison rather than being sent to a place for treatment. Additionally, the cost of maintaining an elderly, ill, or mentally ill inmate is three times more expensive than the average inmate. If older prisoners were given intermediate sanctions compared to incarceration, the prison system would not be so overcrowded and would have more beds available for violent criminals. It would also help keep costs down. Elderly inmates pose little or no risk to society, as many of them are wheelchair users or terminally ill