An elderly woman in prison is losing her memory. Why won’t California release her?

Prison guards stood by as Janet Carter, 69, sat in her wheelchair and tried to explain the gaps in her memory. It was May 2022 and her third time appearing before the California parole board, which would decide whether to free her after 25 years.

"I can't remember a whole lot of stuff," she said when a commissioner asked why she couldn't articulate what she'd learned in prison programs. Her lawyer later pointed to a doctor's report that documented some causes: Parkinson's disease, early dementia, a neurocognitive disorder, chemotherapy and a head injury.

Carter has been serving a life sentence since 1998. Advocates say that the refusal to release elderly incarcerated people is part of a growing humanitarian crisis in California and across the US, where an ageing population of people who have been locked up for decades have few or no opportunities to be freed.

"To come home would be a dream come true," Carter said in a recent phone call. "I'm really looking forward to being with my family. And I want to try to pay back the community. I want to help other people. I want the people out there to know that the people in here really need their support."

Even with widespread evidence that releasing the elderly poses no threat, an average of 600 elderly parole cases were denied each year in California from 2019 to 2021, state records reveal. The financial costs are enormous, with the state spending billions annually to house older people in prison. And the human toll is severe as families remain indefinitely separated, while the elderly become increasingly likely to die inside.

"I just want to be able to take care of her," said Debra Dass, Carter's sister. "I can never figure out why, with all her health problems, they think she's a danger to society. She's in a wheelchair and can barely take care of herself. She deserves to have a few good years."

The number of older Americans in prison has surged in recent decades, in part due to harsh sentencing laws. More than 203,000 people are now serving life sentences in the US, and 61,000 of them (30%) are 55 and older. Some experts estimate that by 2030, there could be 200,000 elderly dementia patients imprisoned in the US.

Roughly 11,700 people in California prisons are 60 years and older. They remain incarcerated despite widespread evidence that people "age out of crime" and that when lifers do get released, they rarely reoffend (some data suggests fewer than 1% commit a new crime against a person). More than one-third of people in California prisons are serving life sentences, one of the highest rates in the US.

"It's inhumane to keep people longer than is necessary from a public safety point of view, and particularly as people become elderly and have more health issues, there's a cruelty argument," said Katherine Beckett, a University of Washington professor.

When people sentenced to life become eligible for parole in California, they attend a hearing where commissioners weigh whether they present a threat. The parole board is charged with assessing candidates' "current dangerousness", and is not supposed to reject people based on their offense. But in Carter's first hearing in 2018, the commissioners denied her freedom, saying her crime was "atrocious" and "deplorable".

Carter, who grew up in Minnesota and Orange county, California, met her husband, Lynn Carter, at a bowling alley. She had various jobs until 1996 when at age 43, she was assaulted while working at a storage facility - struck in the head, knocked unconscious and hospitalized. She began to suffer memory loss from the trauma, her records show.

A year later, she and her husband took in Kenneth Boone, a distant relative. In July 1997, Boone and another man killed Lynn Carter; prosecutors alleged that Janet Carter helped plan the attack.

Carter testified that she had no part in the killing; her lawyers said she was drugged by Boone and unconscious when it happened, and that when she awoke, he threatened to kill her and her parents if she reported what happened. Boone admitted in his testimony that he'd been trying to rob Lynn and that Janet played no role. She has confessed to helping cover up the death under threat.

She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 26 years to life, her first criminal offense.

In prison, she has immersed herself in Bible study; learned sign language to aid deaf residents; helped start a cancer support group; crocheted blankets; and earned her GED. Meanwhile, her health and cognitive skills have declined and she survived cancer in 2009, medical records show. She has since been classified as "totally disabled", and the prison's own psychologist said she was a "low risk" for violence since she had no rule violation reports her entire term.

After Carter told the parole board in 2020 that "Parkinson's has taken a lot of my memory, and on a daily basis it takes more", a commissioner said, "Your lack of memory appears to be selective."

In her board hearing this year, she paused dozens of times while speaking, sometimes for more than 30 seconds. But the prosecutor discounted her impairments: "I do not believe that the elderly issues regarding her physical abilities would deter her from committing a crime."

As Carter read her closing statement, expressing remorse and apologizing to her late husband's family, commissioners interrupted saying they were having trouble hearing her. She never finished her remarks.

Carter told the Guardian that it felt as if the board ignored her lawyer's explanation of her disabilities: "It's very hard to concentrate. I know in my mind what I want to say, but I can't express it, it won't come out. My mind just freezes and I can't go forward."

After Carter's lawyer challenged the latest denial, the board's chief counsel reviewed it and found "errors" in the process that had a "substantial likelihood" of affecting the outcome, according to a spokesperson, who declined to elaborate on the findings. The board vacated the decision and scheduled a new hearing.

Keith Wattley, executive director of UnCommon Law, who has handled parole cases for more than 20 years, said Carter's experience was common, noting how the board can cite people's needs for mental health care as justification to keep them imprisoned: "After we fail to adequately treat people while they're in prison, in a final insult to their humanity and dignity, we deny them parole based on the fact that they need treatment, falsely claiming that this makes them still dangerous all this time later."

Records obtained by UnCommon Law show a 94-year-old man with dementia was denied because he "lacks insight", and a man who attempted suicide was denied because he was "recently unstable".

Data analyzed by UnCommon Law show that from 2019 to 2021 in California, roughly 17% of all people scheduled for parole hearings were granted parole. Those with low-level mental health challenges were approved for release in only 11.4% of cases, roughly half the rate of those the system considers neurotypical. And for those with more serious mental health issues, only 4.7% were granted parole. Only about 11% of full-time wheelchair users were approved each year.

And although the board is required to give "special consideration" to someone's elderly status, they are granted parole at roughly the same rate as the broader population. Out of 1,983 scheduled hearings for elderly people last year, only 360 people were granted parole.

"We cannot tolerate a society that incarcerates people for so long that they can't survive on the outside, and then that becomes the reason to keep them incarcerated" said Ashley Nellis, senior research analyst with the Sentencing Project.

Carter said in an interview: "This is supposed to be where we get rehabilitation and help, so we can go out into the community. But for a lot of us in wheelchairs and the elderly, it's really hard."

Dana Simas, a prison spokesperson, said in an email that California had "taken a leading role" in releasing people with life sentences and that 1,424 were granted parole last year, compared with 769 people newly sentenced to life. In 2020 and 2021, the board had its highest ever rate of parole grants for first-time hearings, she said. She also said the low approval rates were partly due to some hearings getting postponed.

The parole board maintains "public safety as our ultimate primary responsibility", Simas said, adding that people's disabilities were only part of the consideration. "While advanced age is generally a factor that mitigates a person's overall risk, the board must take into consideration all relevant information."

She added, "If somebody has served 15 years in prison, and they are not rehabilitated, there's nothing wrong with that person, there's something wrong with the system."

Dass, Carter's sister, said she worries daily that her sister won't make it out of prison alive. In recent years, both of their parents and one of their sisters have died. Carter never got to say goodbye.

"Her drive to come home is strong," said Lilli Paratore, her attorney with UnCommon Law. But she's been in and out of the hospital and struggling to cope.

Carter has a fourth hearing scheduled this Thursday, but contracted Covid two weeks prior, and at one point was so ill, Dass could barely understand what she was saying on the phone.

Dass said she remains proud of her sister's ability to take care of the women around her in the prison, and when she's been denied parole, Carter tries to remain positive and lean into her faith.

She says that God has a plan for her: maybe there's one more person inside who needs her help.