Prisons - Prisoner Demographics: Older Men

"Grant Cooper knows he lives in prison, but there are days when he can't remember why." — Rick Bragg, from his Pulitzer-Prizewinning feature

The 1990s saw a dramatic increase in the number of incarcerated older persons. In 2001, a scant majority (52%) of the prisoners aged 50 and up were doing time for non-violent offenses. The chart shows the percentage of the prisoners in state and federal prisons who were aged 45 and up in 1991 and 1997. The percentage increases are not as dramatic as the numbers. In 1979 there were 6,500 federal and state prisoners over age 55. In 1990 there were 19,160, a figure that more than doubled by 2001 to 38,400.

Combine the pre-incarceration lifestyle of the typical elderly prisoner with what the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA) calls the "poor living conditions in prison," and the result is an expensive drain on the prison system. AoA estimates that it costs almost three times more to maintain elderly prisoners, mostly because of the expense of health care. The nature of the problem is graphically summarized by APB News: "Corrections employees find themselves in a strange, new environment: caring for quadriplegics who can barely move, tending paralyzed stroke victims confined to wheelchairs, and monitoring schizophrenics and Alzheimer's patients who require round-the-clock medication." One proposed solution is early release of non-violent older offenders who are at low risk of reoffending — release to someplace where they can be cared for more cost-effectively.

Geriatric patients are taking up room that might be filled with younger, more dangerous prisoners. Burl Cain, warden at Louisiana's infamous Angola State Penitentiary, told Rick Bragg of The New York Times: "We need our prison beds for the predators who are murdering people today."

Next we look at the phenomenon of rising numbers of nonviolent women in prison.

Sources: Chart: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, Table 6.38, http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/wk1/t638.wk1. Primary Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, NCJ 177613 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2000), Table 4.1 (Table adapted by SOURCEBOOK staff). U.S. Administration on Aging, "Aging Internet Information Notes: Older Adults in Prisons," http://www.aoa.gov/naic/notes/olderadultsinprison.html. "Imprisoning Elderly Offenders: Public Safety or Maximum Security Nursing Homes, Survey Report -Executive Summary," Elderly Prisoner Initiative/Coalition For Federal Sentencing Reform, http://www.sentencing.org/exec.pdf. Jim Krane, "Demographic Revolution Rocks U.S. Prisons," April 12, 1999, http://www.apbnews.com/cjsystem/behind_bars/oldprisoners/mainpris0412.html. Rick Bragg, "Where Alabama Inmates Fade Into Old Age," http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1996/feature-writing/works/prison.html. Information retrieved November 13, 2002.