Old Behind Bars: The Aging Prison Population in the United States
Publication year:
2012
| Cataloged on:
Oct. 22, 2012
ANNOTATION: This report provides “data on the number of aging men and women in prison; provides information on the cost of confining them; and … offers an overview of some ways that prison systems have responded to them. The report tackles some policy considerations posed by incarcerating elderly inmates, and raises the human rights concerns that must be addressed if sound policies are to be developed for the criminal punishment and incarceration of older prisoners, both those who grow old in prison and those who enter at an advanced age” (p. 6). Sections following an executive summary are: recommendations; methodology; profile of older prisoners—8% of the total inmate population is age 55 or older; reasons for the aging prison population; conditions of their confinement; aging bodies and soaring costs; release from prison or dying in prison; when imprisonment is no longer justified; and conclusion.
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