Humanity & Incarceration Project

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Support the Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign.

 

It may surprise you to know that there is already a law on the books that supports the release of aging people in prison known as “Compassionate Release” [8 USC subdivision 3582(c)(1)(A)]. This law stipulates that to be considered for so-called compassionate release, an incarcerated individual must be 70 years old; have spent at least 30 years in prison, and be declared to not be a danger to society by the Bureau of Prisons. The problem with the first two criteria is that despite statistics suggesting that violent offenders who have served at least 15 years are unlikely to reoffend, (particularly individuals who are older than 55), the age (70) and length of sentence (30 years) required for compassionate release are unnecessarily Draconian.  Therefore, many elderly incarcerated individuals end up serving what is tantamount to a death sentence, given that they are likely to die in prison due to poor health while costing society upwards of $60,000 to $70,000 a year—twice the amount spent on younger incarcerated individual. Currently, activists behind this grassroots initiative are working to push through the passage of a bill before the New York State Senate mandating that anyone age 55 and older in a New York prison be eligible for a parole hearing after they’ve served at least 15 years of their sentence. This proposed legislation would include people who are serving life sentences. 

 

Write to the elders featured here to show them you care.

 

You can either write an old-fashioned snail mail letter or start an email correspondence through JPay.com . Your own details will be protected. To write to an individual, you will need to know their official DIN (Dept. Identification Number). You can look up any individual's DIN number here.

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Become a writing mentor.

 

You can choose to mentor incarcerated individuals and help them with their writing through the nonprofit Transforming Lives, which pairs incarcerated individuals with mentors who help them express and better advocate for themselves through the written word.

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Learn more.

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• Find out more about second look initiatives and incarcerated individuals who have changed.  This moving New York Times opinion video is a good place to start.

• Check out this 2022 report on the growing problem of dementia in incarcerated elders from the American Bar Association's Commission on Law & Aging--another great resource on aging in prison. 

• Read this Op Ed in the New York Times on what one prison is doing to address the growing issue of dementia among seniors in prison.

• Browse The Appeal, a nonprofit that supports investigative journalism on the prison system, including articles like this one on the cost of aging in prison.

• Read this Op ed in the New York Times:  "Elderly and Imprisoned: 'I Don't Count It as Living, Only Existing"

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