Virginia Report Finds Deaths Increasing as Prison Population Ages
by David M. Reutter
A July 2026 report issued by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) found that the age of persons dying in prison increased and those prisoners more often died from natural causes. The report made recommendations to reduce the number of deaths.
In 2024, the Virginia Legislature approved a bill that requires DCJS to collect and annually report data on deaths that occur when people are in state prison, juvenile justice detention or law enforcement custody. The law also requires DCJS to make recommendations to reduce the number of deaths.
The number of reported deaths in 2025 was 158, which was an increase from 157 deaths in 2024. Inside those numbers, reported deaths in law enforcement custody declined from 60 in 2024 to 47 in 2025. The number of persons who died in prison increased from 97 in 2024 to 111 in 2025. No juvenile detention deaths were reported in 2024 and 2025.
The report concluded that persons dying in the custody of law enforcement were more likely to die from excessive force at a rate of 50% in 2024 and 41% in 2025. Prisoners, however, were more likely to die of natural causes. In 2024, 62 prisoners, or 78% of all reported deaths, resulted from natural causes. In 2025, the cause of death was unavailable at the time of the report for 50 deaths. Of the 61 prisoner deaths for which a cause was known, 52, or 85%, occurred due to natural causes. Of the two reported years, the only reported prisoner on prisoner homicide death occurred in 2025. No prisoner deaths were attributed to guards’ use of excessive force in 2024, but one prisoner died from excessive force in 2025.
In Virginia, like in most of the county (as this issue’s cover story reports), the average age of prisoners dying in prison increased. In 2025, the median age for persons who died in prison was 63, which was an increase from 62 in 2024. The number of persons dying in prison has gradually increased since 2001. Between 2001 and 2025, an average of 92 people died in prison annually. Inside those statistics, an average of 88 prisoners died annually between 2001 and 2013. Removing the outlier COVID years of 2020 and 2021, showed an average of 90 prisoners died each year between 2014 and 2025. The 111 prisoner deaths exhibit the effect of longer sentences, resulting in virtual death sentences.
Many older prisoners received sentences in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. “What’s happening now is that people who were given those sentences in previous decades are getting older,” said Wanda Bertram, a communications specialist at Prison Policy Initiative. “Another reason the prison population is getting older is because simply, more people who are older are being arrested.”
Bertram said that as of 2020, 30% of people serving life sentences were 55 or older. Bertram estimated that at least 61,000 prisoners who are older than 55 are serving sentences that will keep them in prison the rest of their lives. A study by the American Geriatrics Society found that older prisoners cost more than three times to incarcerate than younger prisoners due to increased medical care needs.
The DCJS report made recommendations to reduce prisoner deaths. The report urged increased data quality, expanded access to overdose services and peer recovery specialists, improved education for healthy lifestyles and deescalation tactics for guards, and increased staff. Providing hospice and assisted living facilities for prisoners was also recommended. The report concluded that the trend of persons dying in prison due to natural clauses “is likely to continue and become more pronounced in the future.”See: Virginia Civilian Deaths in Custody in 2025, Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, Criminal Justice Research Center, July 2026.
Additional Source: WTOP
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