Data Source: New York DOCCS "Profile of Inmates Under Custody" series. (Graph: Rachel Gandy, 2015)

This graph originally appeared in What’s behind New York State’s elderly prison boom?.

While the number of people behind bars has fallen for most age groups, the number of people over the age of 50 incarcerated in New York State prisons is climbing. (While we do not have an explanation for the bump up or down for each age group in 1999, we do not consider it to be significant given the clarity of the larger trend.)