Older and incarcerated: policy implications of aging prison populations

• Published date: 13 March 2017
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-09-2016-0053
• Pages: 57-63
• Date: 13 March 2017
• Author: Zachary Psick,Jonathan Simon,Rebecca Brown,Cyrus Ahalt
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice

Older and incarcerated: policy implications

of aging prison populations

Zachary Psick, Jonathan Simon, Rebecca Brown and Cyrus Ahalt

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the policy Implications of aging prison populations.

Design/methodology/approach –An examination of the worldwide aging trend in prison and its

implications for correctional policy, including an examination of population aging in California prisons as

a case example of needed reform.

Findings –Prison populations worldwide are aging at an unprecedented rate, and age-related medical

costs have had serious consequences for jurisdictions struggling to respond to the changes.

These trends are accompanied by a growing body of evidence that old age is strongly correlated

with desistance from criminal behavior, suggesting an opportunity to at least partially

address the challenges of an aging prison population through early release from prison for

appropriate persons.

Originality/value –Some policies do exist that aim to reduce the number of older, chronically

ill or disabled and dying people in prison, but they have not achieved that goal on a sufficient scale.

An examination of the situation in California shows that recognizing how the healthcare needs of

incarcerated people change as they age –and how aging and aging-related health changes often

decrease an older person’s likelihood of repeat offense –is critical to achieving effective and efficient

policies and practices aimed at adequately caring for this population and reducing their numbers in

prisons when appropriate.

Keywords Public policy, Correctional healthcare, Aging prison populations, Criminal justice health,

Older offenders, Prison overcrowding

Paper type Research paper

Background: the compounding problems of aging in prison

Adults aged 55 years and older are the fastest growing demographic group of incarcerated

people in countries as diverse as Australia, Japan, the UK and the USA (Williams et al., 2014).

Criminal justice populations, on average, experience rates of chronic illness and disability

10-15 years younger than non-incarcerated populations. Consequently, many researchers,

corrections departments in many US states, and European countries consider incarcerated

people “older”or “aging”beginning around age 55 (Vallas, 2016; Williams et al., 2009, 2012).

A recent study of US state prison populations found that this group grew from 3-10 percent

of the total state prison population between 1993 and 2013 (Carson and Sabol, 2016).

This represented a 400 percent increase in number, while the median age of incarcerated

adults grew from 30-36. These trends, which exceed national population aging rates in

the USA, resulted largely from policy changes in the 1980s and 1990s that lengthened

prison sentences and reduced opportunities for release from prison prior to the completion of

a sentence (Carson and Sabol, 2016; Fellner and Vinck, 2012; Rikard and Rosenberg, 2007).

Consequently, in the absence of reforms, prison populations can be expected to continue

growing older for years to come.

Older adults are at increased risk for medical conditions associated with aging –such as

functional impairment or disability, dementia and multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity) –

that are often particularly difficult to manage in the prison setting. David Runnels of California’s

Received 1 September 2016

Revised 9 December 2016

3 January 2017

5 January 2017

Accepted 5 January 2017

The authors thank Alex Russell of

the UC Davis Center for Poverty

Research, Michelle Hamline of the

UC Davis Department of

Pediatrics, and this journal’s

editors and reviewers for their

incisive and thoughtful comments

on various drafts

of this paper.

Zachary Psick is based at the

Department of Sociology,

University of California, Davis,

Davis, California, USA.

Jonathan Simon is based at

the University of California,

Berkeley, Berkeley,

California, USA.

Rebecca Brown is based at

Division of Medicine,

Department of Geriatrics,

University of California,

San Francisco,

San Francisco, USA.

Cyrus Ahalt is based at the

University of California,

San Francisco,

San Francisco, California, USA.

DOI 10.1108/IJPH-09-2016-0053 VOL. 13 NO. 1 2017, pp. 57-63, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200

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