Aging baby boomers partly explain the rise in older prisonpopulations

Inmates over 50 are the fastest growing population in federal and state prisons, leading to an increased need for, and cost of, prison healthcare services. But what is driving this aging prison population? In new research, Jeremy Luallen finds that rather than harsh sentencing regimes, a significant portion of this ‘graying’ of the prison population is linked to the Baby Boomer-related aging of the general population. They write that in light of the importance of this inescapable demographic change on prison populations, states should focus their efforts on reducing inmate and healthcare costs and ensure any new policies have sunset provisions.