Rapp Campaign Statement On NY Comptroller Report On Crisis Of Aging In NY Prisons
(New York) – New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a new report, Post-COVID Trends in New York’s Aging Prison Population, which details the rise in older adults behind bars and recommends that state law makers consider parole reforms and other measures to safely reduce the number of older adults in state prisons.
In response, Jose Saldaña, Director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign (RAPP) and a survivor of 38 years in New York State prisons and a crime survivor, released the following statement:
“Comptroller DiNapoli said ‘New York must confront the challenges of an older incarcerated population’ and we agree. The solution is clear. Lawmakers must finally enact the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills, two common sense measures included in the Comptroller’s report that would establish reason able pathways to release based on a person’s transformation in prison and current risk to public safety. The evidence is clear that forcing completely rehabilitated older adults to spend their final years in prison costs a fortune and delivers zero public safety benefit. They have the lowest rates of reoffending once released and the highest medical bills while imprisoned. Crime victim advocates, racial justice leaders, organized labor, District Attorneys, the Attorney General, and defense attorneys alike support these measures because they will not only make the system more fair, but will also allow the state to put its limited resources toward what actually keeps New Yorkers safe.”
In addition, Ruth Finkelstein, ScD, Executive Director of Hunter College’s Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, said: “New York cannot be a state that claims to protect the dignity and wellbeing of older adults if it continues down this path of warehousing them indefinitely in brutal prisons. Our state’s prisons have hospital wards for people with terminal illnesses and whole units for people with dementia. We do not oppose the existence of these units, but rather the need for them. Prisons shouldn’t be nursing homes or morgues. The average age of death in state prisons is only 56. We know, based on years of study and building relationships with formerly incarcerated elders, that older adults have created and led the most effective rehabilitative programs for fellow incarcerated people, transforming attitudes and behaviors and improving safety for everyone. When given a chance to return to our communities, they continue to show leadership and serve others. Law makers must pass the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills this session.”
BACKGROUND:
The report’s toplines include:
As the overall prison population declined, the percentage of incarcer ated individuals who are 50 and older increased. In 2019, this older popu lation made up 21% of those incarcerated in New York, up from 12% in 2008. By 2025, the per centage had increased to 22.3%. One reason is a decrease in parole releases for older adults.
The number of incarcerated people between the ages 60 and 69 years old and 70 years old and over have grown in number and as a share of the total population. Together, they were nearly 9% of the overall prison population in 2025.
Per person cost of health services spent by DOCCS has risen from $5,850 per person in State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2013 to $13,923 in SFY 2025, a 138% increase.
The report uplifts policy changes under consideration in the Legislature, including the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills, as well as sentencing reforms, which could address what the report calls “the challenges of an older incarcerated population”.
At least 160 people have died in New York State prisons since Robert Brooks was brutally murdered by a mob of white prison guards and sergeants, according to DOCCS data.
The average age of death in state prisons is only 56.
The People’s Campaign for Parole Justice is calling on lawmakers in Albany to pass two bills that, together, will ensure that people in prison have meaningful opportunities for individualized consideration for parole release based on who they are today, what they have done to change, and whether they pose a risk if released:
Fair and Timely Parole (S.159/A.127) restores the Parole Board to its original purpose of evaluating people’s readiness for release, rather than denying people based solely or primarily on their conviction, while preserving the Board’s discretion to make individualized determinations. In other words, it would provide more rigorous parole reviews for incarcerated people who are already parole-eligible.
Elder Parole (S.454/A.514) provides for parole release con sideration, on a case-by case basis, for people classified by DOCCS as older adults who have served at least 15 years.
More than a dozen of the state’s leading crime victim & survivor advocates and anti-violence advocates are calling for passage of the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills, including the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, and more.
These bills are also backed by 350+ partners, including public defense organizations and District Attorneys alike, as well as at least two former New York State Parole Commissioners, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the NAACP, seven U.S. Congress members, 1199 SEIU, HTC, RWDSU, 32BJ, LiveOn NY, JASA, New burgh Mayor Torrance Harvey, the Rochester City Council, Ulster County Legislators, the New York City Council, Albany’s Common Council President and Chief City Auditor, the State Society on Aging, the ATI & Reentry Coalition, the New York City Bar Association, and many others. Attorney General Tish James backs Elder Parole.
According to a report by NYU Law School’s Center on Race, Inequality & the Law, racial dis parities in parole release decisions under Governor Kathy Hochul are the highest on record. The report finds there would have been 4,152 more grants of release to people of color if their release rates matched those of white people since 2016, including 1,338 just since Gov. Hochul took office.
An earlier report by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli about the unsustainable rise in the population of older adults in prison calls for expanding pathways to release.
The Center for Jus tice at Columbia University has estimated that enacting both bills would save $522 million annually.
24 states have some form of elder parole; New York State is not yet among them.