Elderly Individuals Serving Life Sentence – PA also incarcerates the second highest amount of elderly prisoners of any state. Not everyone who is elderly in prison is serving LWOP, but many are. In 1980 there were 370 elderly people in PA’s state prisons, now there are over 8000. It costs the state an average of $42,000 a year incarcerate someone in PA, but due to higher medical costs it costs approximately $66,000 a year to incarcerate elderly prisoners. There are also innumerable costs to families and communities who lose the economic and emotional support of loved ones who are forced to grow old in prison. PA Department of Corrections’ FY2011-2012 Cost & Population Report See the Vera Institute’s Report-The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers
See the ACLU’s Report “At America’s Expense: The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly