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The Graying of American Prisons
Loaded on May 1, 2024
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2024, page 36
Filed under:
Geriatric Classification,
Crime/Demographics,
Statistics/Trends,
Census,
Cost of Prison Systems.
Location:
United States of America.
The term “geriatric” can apply to a prisoner as young as 50 in some prison systems, and it describes the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. incarcerated population. As Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) reported on August 2, 2023, the number has quintupled over the past 30 years, totaling 186,000 prisoners 55 …
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More from this issue:
- Aramark: Prison Food for Thought
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Southern California Jail Guard Arrested With 104 Pounds of Fentanyl
- Families of New Jersey Jail Suicide Victims Still Waiting for Settlement Payouts
- $500,000 Settlement for Colorado Prisoner Forced to Defecate in Bucket for 12 Days, by David Reutter
- These Men Fought White Supremacists and Got Sentenced to Over 200 Years, by Victoria Law
- Six Deaths in Just Over Six Months at Alabama Jail
- Federal Watchdog Slams BOP for Lapses in Epstein Death, Pushes Back Against Rumors It Wasn’t Suicide, by Douglas Ankney
- Alabama Woman Jailed for “Fetal Endangerment” Sues After She Was Forced to Give Birth Alone in Jail Shower
- Over 5,000 Prisoners Federally Sentenced Every Month, by Douglas Ankney
- $32,000 Settlement for Failure to Provide Insulin to Diabetic Wisconsin Prisoner
- Former Illinois Prisoner Pursuing PhD After 27 Years of Incarceration
- $7,500 Settlement Reached After Georgia Prisoner’s Retaliation Claim Survives Summary Judgment
- Autistic Detainee’s Death in Pittsburgh Jail Blamed on “Culture” That Left Him “Punished Instead of Treated”
- HIV and Incarcerated People: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, by Douglas Ankney
- $6,500 Paid to Illinois Prisoner After Denied Records Request
- Two West Virginia Jail Guards Plead Guilty in Detainee Death, Six More Charged
- $125,000 Settlement for Wisconsin Prisoner’s Claim That Guards Set Him Up For Stabbing, by David Reutter
- Escaped Idaho Prisoner Recaptured, Three Accomplices Charged
- Class-Action Challenge to Medical Care at Tennessee Jail Results in $3.8 Million Settlement
- Prisoner-on-Prisoner Violence at California Prison Leaves One Dead, Another Stabbed
- Eighth Circuit Says Lower Court “Tilted the Scales Too Far” for Jailers in Missouri Detainee’s Fatal Overdose, by David Reutter
- Arizona Sheriff Accused of Misusing Detainee Funds to Buy Guns, Ammo
- Three Texas Prison Guards Among 13 Charged in Sprawling Smuggling Scheme
- Fourth Circuit Moves North Carolina Prisons Closer to Recognizing Nation of Gods and Earths, by Matthew Clarke
- Washington Superior Court Says Jail Cannot Bill Poor Detainees for Medical Care
- Alabama Denied Summary Judgment in Prisoner’s Suit Over Knifepoint Rape, by Matthew Clarke
- Fourth Circuit Reinstates HRDC’s RICO Claim Against Securus and ViaPath
- Ninth Circuit Refunds Filing Fee to “Struck-Out” California Prisoner Denied Indigent Status Under PLRA, by Matthew Clarke
- Pennsylvania Jail Warden Fired, Deputy Warden Resigns After Guard Assaults Detainee
- Was There a Plot to Discredit Former Missouri Sheriff Investigating Corruption?, by Douglas Ankney
- The Graying of American Prisons
- $10 Million Reimbursed for Vacated Washington Drug Possession Convictions, by David Reutter
- Regarding Death Penalty, Biden’s Actions Don’t Align with His Mouth, by Douglas Ankney
- “Third Time Is Not the Charm” For Texas Jailers Barred by PLRA from Enforcing Prior Settlement Agreement Against Prisoner in New Suit, by Matthew Clarke
- Migrants at New Mexico CoreCivic ICE Detention Center Forced to Clean Up Sewage with Bare Hands, by Douglas Ankney
- Wyoming Supreme Court Grants Immunity to DOC in Prison COVID-19 Vaccine Mix-Up, by David Reutter
- Three-Year Sentence for One of Four BOP Employees Charged With Ignoring Fatally Ill Federal Prisoner in Virginia
- FTC Orders GTL/ViaPath to Help 650,000 Customers Whose Info Was Stolen, Posted on Dark Web, by Douglas Ankney
- “There you go, Agent Orange!” Former South Carolina Sheriff Federally Indicted for Assaulting Jail Detainee, by Edward Lyon
- Dismissal Affirmed of Florida Prisoner’s Claim for Exposure to Human Waste, by David Reutter
- Qualified Immunity Denied to Former New Mexico Warden in Prisoner’s Sexual Abuse Claim
- HRDC Wins Summary Judgment in North Carolina Prison Censorship Case
- Pennsylvania Detainee Found Four Months After Jail Escape, Five Guards Fired
- BOP Guards Plead Guilty in Smuggling Ring at Closed Manhattan Lockup
- San Diego Jury Deadlocks on Charges Against Jail Doctor in Detainee’s Death, Nurse Acquitted
- Legal Noose Tightens Around Necks of CDCR Officials Whose Botched Transfer Sparked San Quentin COVID-19 Outbreak, by Douglas Ankney
- Virginia Supreme Court Denies New Sentence Credits to State Prisoner Serving “Mixed” Sentence, by Douglas Ankney
- Massachusetts Makes Calls Free From Prisons and Jails
- Ohio Supreme Court Orders Records Produced for State Prisoner, by David Reutter
- $25.2 Million Settlement for Two Connecticut Prisoners Exonerated After 35 Years, by David Reutter
- Seventh Circuit Lets Illinois Prisoner Proceed In Forma Pauperis, Despite Trust Account Balance Exceeding Filing Fee, by Douglas Ankney
- Eighth Circuit Upholds Key Parts of Missouri Parole Reform
- BOP Rolls Out Veterans-Only Housing at Federal Prison in Texas
- Second Circuit Grants New York Officials Qualified Immunity for Prisoner’s Stolen Sentence Credits, by David Reutter
- BOP Shrugs Off Month-Long Leavenworth Lockdown
- $15,000 to Virginia Prisoner Mauled by DOC K-9, by Matthew Clarke
- California Law Extends Involuntary Commitment and Detention to Substance Abusers
- West Virginia Supreme Court Orders Prison Officials to Develop Good-Time Credit Policy, by David Reutter
- “Sugar Daddy” Pennsylvania Constable Accused of Recruiting “Sugar Babies” at Jail
- Sentencing Project Proposes Remedies for Racial Disparities Behind Bars
- North Carolinian Left in Jail Awaiting Trial for 11 Years
- Ninth Circuit Affirms Class Action Consent Decree at California’s Alameda County Jail, by David Reutter
- Fired Alabama Guard Reinstated Despite Excessive Force Used on Prisoner Who Died, by David Reutter
- News in Brief
More from these topics:
- Costs of U.S. Incarceration to Families Pegged at Nearly $350 Billion a Year, Aug. 1, 2025. Cost of Prison Systems.
- Prison Gerrymandering Alive and Well in Oklahoma, Aug. 1, 2025. Racial Discrimination, Census.
- Over One-Third of Older Texas Prisoners Suffering Cognitive Impairment, July 15, 2025. Geriatric Classification, Medical, Failure to Treat, Elderly Defendants.
- Alabama’s Oldest Prisoner Dies in Hospital, July 15, 2025. Geriatric Classification, Totality of Conditions, Age, Compassionate Release.
- Former Death Row Prisoner Whose Case Changed the Law Dies in Texas, July 15, 2025. Geriatric Classification, Age.
- $2.4 Million Settlement Reached After Elderly Pretrial Detainee Strangled by Cellmate in San Antonio Jail, June 1, 2025. Geriatric Classification, Failure to Protect (General), Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death).
- Missouri Repeals “Pay-to-Stay” Law, May 1, 2025. Cost of Prison Systems, Costs, Ability to Pay.
- TDCJ to Run Out of Beds in 2025, April 1, 2025. Cost of Prison Systems, Overcrowding, Staffing.
- Crime Down But Incarceration Up In Tennessee, March 1, 2025. Crime, Statistics/Trends.
- Among World Nations, Individual U.S. States Near Top of List for Per Capita Incarceration, Feb. 15, 2025. Statistics/Trends, Prisoners-International, Effects of Mass Incarceration.

