NCJ Number
172587
Date Published
Unknown
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Data on New York State elderly inmates (65 years old and older) for 1985 and 1995 address age at commitment, parole eligibility date, time served, time to serve prior to parole eligibility, crime, criminal history, race/ethnicity, gender, and region of commitment; these data are compared to younger inmates for similar time periods.
Abstract
There were 280 elderly inmates in New York State prisons on December 31, 1995. Most were imprisoned on their current offense when they were 55 to 64 years of age (39.6 percent) or 65 to 74 years old (44.6 percent). Most older inmates (75 percent) will be eligible for release by parole or conditional release within 4 years. A larger proportion of elderly inmates had no previous arrests, felony arrests, and felony convictions when compared to other inmates. Elderly inmates are serving longer aggregate minimum and maximum sentences when compared with younger inmates. Proportionately, elderly inmates were more likely to be white (42.9 percent) than African-American (33.9 percent) or Hispanic (20.7 percent). Although the percentage of white and black elderly inmates declined from 1985 to 1995, the percentage of Hispanic elderly inmates increased from 10 percent to 20.7 percent. 13 tables and 1 figure