It's been said, and we've grown up hearing, that all the cells in our bodies regenerate every seven to 10 years, including the heart and the brain. Can we assume then, that our moral and emotional compasses are also capable of transforming over time?

That notion has been belied, judging by the numbers of aging long-termers warehoused in prison who have been denied parole by commissioners basing their decisions only on what individuals did rather than who they are. People of conscience are now watching the forthcoming decisions of five recent appointees to see if they ascribe to transformation.

It is too late for John MacKenzie, a model prisoner who hung himself at the age of 70 after 35 years of incarceration and 10 repeated parole denials. MacKenzie is the human sacrifice that underscores the broken parole system.

As a former parole commissioner, it was unusual for me to meet a parole candidate over the age of 50. Last year, of 52,344 inmates in the state's correctional facilities, 10,140 (19 percent) were over 50, despite the decline in the overall population. The number of elderly incarcerated has increased 98 percent since 2000, reflecting the Parole Board's unwillingness to release inmates, even after they've met their minimum allowable sentence.

"Life" on the back of a sentence appears to give a pass to the commissioners unwilling to accept transformation in human behavior and too politically motivated to practice their job, which is risk assessment. Thus, we have prison hospitals and infirmaries filled with long-termers languishing through the years, even though their risk of re-offending is 1 percent. And the health care costs for the prisons have increased 20 percent from three years ago to $380 million today, up $64.5 million.

If the parole board doesn't trust in people's transformations, supported by their proof of advanced education, program involvement, clean disciplinary records and so on, perhaps they'll believe in new evidence in neuroplasticity, a field of science that is also coming of age. Simply stated, it uses brain scans to show that the brain has the ability to change and heal itself as it is subjected to new experiences. Much is coming to light in the medical community about this area of study, with implications of change for ADD and Parkinson's Disease behaviors.

This has an important implication for criminal justice as well the possibility that people can become entirely different in their behaviors. Physical change occurs in the brain on its own, with exposure to life's surrounding stimulus over time.

I would estimate that 80 percent of 77,000 parole interviews I participated in were with people who suffered early life traumas, such as sex abuse, violence and concussions.

Our older imprisoned people have gained maturity, non-violent adaptive behaviors and introspection. They become different people, demonstrating different responses.

Those in prison are there for crimes that are, without exception, horrendous. While the penalties for these crimes can never truly make a victim whole, the court-sanctioned sentence is our accepted legal calibration for commensurate time.

Can denying parole for 30 years or more beyond a minimum sentence change the crime? Can expressing redemption and remorse 10, 13 or 17 times before the Parole Board make a person any more prepared to face the community?

No. It makes them older and sicker, and some don't even recall why they are there. These aged are mostly invisible people. On paper, we don't see their limps, their dementia, their physical impairments, their addled senses, their diminished capacities. They bring with them all the hope it takes to describe their transformation and regret to the Parole Board, only to be almost certainly denied based on the "nature of the crime." And the aging over-50 category grows.

Perhaps the Parole Board can examine the possibility of the growth of their own hearts and their brains among their new colleagues.

Barbara Hanson Treen served on the state Parole Board from 1984 to 1996.

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Parole Board ignores the capacity for change - Albany Times Union