the term "elderly". There are varying definitions for terms such as "elderly" and "older". With respect to people who are incarcerated, however, the Social Security definitions of 62 and 65 years old, various "senior" definitions that range from 55 through 60 years old, and other definitions may not be appropriate.
There is a move to define an older offender as anyone who is 50 years of age or older. Research indicates that the aging process is accelerated by approximately 10 years for incarcerated persons in comparison to the general population. Faiver (1998) cited correctional medical experts who estimate a 10-year differential in physiological characteristics between typical older inmates and their counterparts in the non-institutionalized population. Thus, aged 50 and older is an appropriate definition of "elderly prisoner".
In 1993, there were 44,202 persons incarcerated in the nation's prisons (state and federal) who were aged 50 or older. By 2002, the population of prisoners aged 50 and older in the nation's federal and state prisons has soared to 121,504 รน a 174.9 percent increase over a decade (Anno, Graham, Lawrence, Shansky, Bisbee, & Blackmore, 2004). Exhibit 1 (below on this page) provides a graphic illustration of the explosive growth in the population of elderly prisoners in the United States.
Older inmates represent the fastest growing segment of the prison population. Elderly prisoners account for 8.4 percent of the prison population today. The proportion of elderly prisoners is expected to increase to nearly 12 percent of all federal and state prisoners by 2010, (Neely, Addison, & Craig-Moreland, 1997). Aging of the prison population is attributed mainly to harsher sentencing policies resulting in both the rising incarceration rates of offenders aged 50 and older, as well as a "stacking effect", whereby young inmates remain in prison, "often into their golden years, without hope of parole" (Zimbardo...