I want to extend the discussion about the aging prison population that was sparked a couple of weeks ago by Sara Mayeux’s post at Prison Law Blog and followed by my own about the top states with the highest percentages of prisoners over 55 years old and then was engaged by Adam Serwer over at Tapped.

Yesterday the AP published a piece titled Aging inmates strain prison systems. From the article:

The ACLU estimates that it costs about $72,000 to house an elderly inmate for a year, compared to $24,000 for a younger prisoner.

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the number of men and women in state and federal prisons age 55 and older grew 76 percent between 1999 and 2008, the latest year available, from 43,300 to 76,400. The growth of the entire prison population grew only 18 percent in that period.

“We’re reaping the fruits of bad public policy like Three Strikes laws and other mandatory minimum sentencing laws,” said David C. Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project in Washington, D.C. “One in 11 prisoners is serving a life sentence.”

Washington has 2,495 inmates who are age 50 or older, the state’s definition of elderly, according to information released after a public records request from The Associated Press. There are 270 inmates over the age of 65.

It occurs to me that not all segments of the prison population are aging at the same rate.  For example, it turns out according to Dr. Heather West of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, that while prisoners of all races are getting older, this is more pronounced among whites and African Americans.  Latino/Hispanic prisoners are younger with a particularly large grouping who are between the ages of 25-29 (source: Exploring Racial Differences in Imprisonement Rates 2000-2009, Presentation at the ACA Conference 8/3/10).

The AARP has produced this short report about the issue of aging prisoners that is worth watching to get an understanding of what is at stake (h/t vera institute of justice)

Photographer Tim Gruber has also created an incredible photo essay called Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars. Honestly, I cannot say enough about this harrowing piece of work.  You need to see it yourself.  He describes the photographs as follows:

Served Out documents a world that is made up of inmates that are weathered beyond their years. Many of these men struggle with simple tasks, like remembering the date, feeding themselves or even leaving their bed. Beyond the loss of their physical and mental independence many fight with keeping their hope alive. Forgiveness, hope and a sense of independence are not easily found behind bars. “Hope is all we have. We have to keep some kind of hope if we don’t we’ll surely perish,” said inmate Thomas Jones of coming to terms with a life behind bars.

Here is just one of the images.  Tell me why are these men is STILL LOCKED UP?

Tim Gruber - Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars

Tim Gruber -- Served Out: Aging & Dying Behind Bars