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Compassionate Release & The Money It Will Save

July 7, 2025

The cost of incarcerating elderly and ill prisoners is climbing at a tremendous rate That is breaking the bank in prison systems all over the country. Compassionate release is a hot potato, but allowing elderly, dying, or severely ill prisoners who pose no threat to society to seek early release, could saving millions of dollars annually.

Compassionate Release & The Money It Will Save

As of 2022, there were more people serving life sentences in prison than the total number of people in prison in 1970.* And the proportion of state and federal prisoners who are 55 or older is roughly five times what it was three decades ago, which totaled more than 186,000 people. The cost for a healthy inmate is in excess of $28,000 per year in Indiana, yet the cost for a debilitated elderly inmate could be more than $100,000 per year according to studies.

Even if we don't care about the human factor or the continued imprisonment of elderly and ill people, the bottom line is: Incarcerating aging prisoners is expensive. One report says it is as much as nine times the cost of housing younger inmates, and because of this, both state and federal lawmakers are thinking more seriously about releasing elderly prisoners through compassionate release.

What?

But hold on, while the idea of releases for aged or seriously ill people is a political and moral hot potato, most of these people could literally not hurt a flea. Meanwhile, the courts and others contend that if a person, for example, has committed murder, how can we release him? I get it. But, as we doggedly hold them in prison, the state through its taxpayers bear the overwhelming burden of medically caring for them and providing services, like driving them to hospital visits, accommodating those in wheelchairs, and much, much more. Whether they are elderly or seriously ill, what’s the point?

Consider the cost of a non-incarcerated person in a nursing home. Today, a shared room costs an average of $314 per day, or $114,665 annually. Our prisons are certainly not spending that kind of money, yet if they aren't, you have to wonder if critically ill and elderly people in prisons are being given the care they need? Being imprisoned for a crime is one thing. Denying quality medical care to a suffering human being is another.

States are seriously looking at this money-draining issue. In Oklahoma, the geriatric population has quadrupled in the past two decades. In Virginia, 25% of the state's prisoners will soon be geriatric. And in Texas, elderly inmates are the fastest-growing demographic in the entire system. In Indiana, according to the Indianapolis Star, as many as 500 inmates could conceivably qualify for compassionate release, allowing elderly, dying, or severely ill prisoners, who are not a threat to society, to seek early release. Let's cut that $100,000 price tag for caring for the aged and ill in half. Let's say it's only $50,000. If we let out all 500, we could save $25 million. Think of the programs we could fund, and the money we could save.

Remember, people released at age 65 or older are the least likely of any age group to be re-arrested. While we proudly support a robust system of laws and the penalties for breaking them, we must also consider that people change. They get ill, and they get old. On a selective basis, let’s look at those 500 old and sick men and women who might have a new life, might find forgiveness, and might be allowed to be free, at least for a little while.


Nancy

* The Sentencing Project

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