Illinois Spending $428 Million Per Year To Keep Elderly Inmates Behind Bars

State Spends Millions Per Year Keeping Elderly Inmates Behind Bars

Bill Heirens, infamous as Chicago's "Lipstick Killer," is the longest-serving inmate in the Illinois prison system. He's been behind bars since the age of 17, when he confessed to three gruesome murders that dominated the news headlines throughout the summer of '46.

Housed at Dixon Correctional Center, the 82-year-old Heirens can't get out of bed or bathe himself, and his cataract-plagued eyes have left him unable to read. He has severe diabetes and gets shots of insulin twice a day, along with a cocktail of other medications. Nurses constantly change bandages on his legs, where diabetic sores weep fluids.

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