{"id":14926,"date":"2023-08-02T08:37:58","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T12:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/?p=14926"},"modified":"2025-12-24T10:01:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:01:02","slug":"aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2023\/08\/02\/aging\/","title":{"rendered":"The aging prison population: Causes, costs, and consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nNew data from the Census Bureau reveals that the U.S. median age rose to a high of 38.9 years<\/a>: an increase of three and half years<\/a> in the last 23 years. The U.S. prison population is aging, too, and at a much faster rate<\/a> than the nation as a whole — and older adults represent a growing portion of people who are arrested and incarcerated each year. The aging of the prison population is the result of a series of disastrous policy decisions in policing, sentencing, and reentry over roughly the last half-century. And while prisons and jails are unhealthy for people of all ages, older adults’ interactions with these systems are particularly dangerous, if not outright deadly. \n<\/p>\n

Aging throughout the criminal legal system<\/h2>\n

\nOlder adults1<\/a><\/sup> are increasingly ensnared in all parts of the criminal legal process: in arrests, pretrial detention, and imprisonment. In 2000, 3% of all adult arrests involved people aged 55 or older, and by 2021, this older population accounted for 8% of all adult arrests.2<\/a><\/sup> According to the most recent available data on local jails across the U.S., from 2020 to 2021 — during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was particularly dangerous<\/a> for older adults — the segment of the jail population aged 55 and older expanded<\/i> by a greater proportion than any other age group, growing 24% compared to an average increase of 15% across all other age groups.3<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p>\n

\"two\n<\/picture><\/div>\n

\nMeanwhile, older people make up five times<\/b> as much of the prison population as they did three decades ago. From 1991 to 2021, the percentage of the state and federal prison population nationwide aged 55 or older swelled from 3% to a whopping 15%.4<\/a><\/sup> This growth is seen even more acutely when looking at people serving life sentences: by 2020, 30% of people serving life sentences<\/a> were at least 55 years old, with more than 61,400 older adults sentenced to die in prison.\n<\/p>\n

The dangers of aging in prison<\/h2>\n

\nPrisons are unhealthy places for anyone of any age, but keeping older adults locked up is particularly dangerous. A robust body of research shows that incarceration<\/a> itself accelerates aging<\/a>: people face more chronic and life-threatening illnesses earlier than we would expect outside of prison, and physiological signs of aging occur in people younger than expected. In addition, a conservative estimate of more than 44,000 people 45 and older<\/a> experience solitary confinement in state prisons each year, in conditions that shorten lives<\/a> and can be detrimental<\/a> to physical<\/a>, mental, and emotional<\/a> health. Years of limited resources<\/a>, inaccessibility<\/a>, and understaffing<\/a> in prison healthcare have created a situation in which each year spent in prison takes two years off<\/a> of an individual’s life expectancy<\/b>. The same scarcity of prison healthcare resources that jeopardizes older people’s health is not just ineffective-it’s also exorbitantly expensive.\n<\/p>\n

The high costs of incarcerating older people<\/h2>\n

\nState and federal governments spend increasingly more money<\/a> on consistently inadequate <\/a>healthcare<\/a> for their growing populations of older adults. While most studies on the steep costs of incarcerating older people date back at least a decade, their findings are consistently dramatic. For example, in California prisons in the 1990s, the state spent three times as much money<\/a> to incarcerate an older person than someone of any other age group. Considering the proportion of California’s prison population over the age of 50 has risen from about 4% in 1994<\/a> to 25% in 2019<\/a>, and that prison healthcare spending per-person has ballooned in the intervening years, the cost of incarcerating older adults only appears to be growing. In 2013, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spent 19% of its total budget — or $881 million<\/a> — to incarcerate older adults. That same year, the BOP reported this group was the “fastest growing segment of its inmate population” with a 25% increase over the course of a single year (as the rest of the population decreased by 1%).\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\n<\/picture>Cut-rate care<\/span>Why is correctional healthcare so bad?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

\nAs long as people are in prison, they should receive the care they need to be safe and healthy. But especially at the state and local level, every dollar spent in prisons is a dollar that could have expanded and improved community health services — and provided superior care. It doesn’t make much sense to spend so much money locking people up in places that are not only dangerous to their health, but more costly to care for them — especially when there is little public safety argument to justify doing so.\n<\/p>\n

Low risk of re-arrest and re-incarceration for older adults<\/h2>\n

\nThe older someone is, the less likely they are to be arrested<\/a> following release from prison, according to the most recent government study of recidivism. In fact, people released at age 65 or older are the least likely of any age group<\/i> to be re-arrested in the five years following release:\n<\/p>\n

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\nDecades of research reinforces these findings: formerly incarcerated older adults are among the least likely to be re-arrested, re-convicted, and reincarcerated.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Decades of “tough on crime” policies contributed to the aging prison population<\/h2>\n

\nThe incarcerated prison population is getting older much more quickly than the general population<\/a> because of policy choices throughout the criminal legal system.\n<\/p>\n

Policing<\/h3>\n

\nPolicing disproportionately targets populations that often include many older adults: unhoused people, people who use drugs or alcohol, and people with cognitive disabilities. Nationally, the unhoused population is growing older<\/a>. From 2007 to 2014, the number of unhoused people over age 50 expanded by 20%<\/a>, and in 2014, this age group accounted for more than 30% of people experiencing homelessness. Given that unhoused people are up to 11 times more likely<\/a> to be arrested than housed people, the likelihood of arrest for older, unhoused people is undoubtedly growing over time. Drug-related arrests among people aged 50 and older nearly doubled<\/a> from 2000 to 2018, indicating a dramatic increase in criminal legal system involvement.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe criminalization of mental illness among older adults is significant as well. One in nine people aged 65 and older have Alzheimer’s dementia<\/a> (one of many kinds of dementia). The most recent national data available indicates that people with cognitive disabilities are overrepresented in jails and prisons: 31% of people in jails<\/a> in 2012 and 24% of people in state prisons<\/a> in 2016 reported a cognitive disability. As greater numbers of older adults with cognitive disabilities encounter police<\/a>,5<\/a><\/sup> older prison populations are likely to grow.\n<\/p>\n

Sentencing<\/h3>\n

\nState and federal sentencing policies from the 1970s to the 2000s resulted in what researchers have called<\/a> “a prescription for an increase in older inmates: more prisoners, more prison beds, more lifers, and less parole.” State and federal laws enacted in this time period resulted in more incarcerated people serving longer sentences via policies that:\n<\/p>\n