A Wrinkle (Over) Time: County-Level Predictors of an Aging Population Sentenced to Prison in Florida from 1980 to 2010

• In Event: Aging and Health Considerations in Corrections

Abstract

In the past three decades, state and federal correctional agencies have witnessed a substantial growth in their older prisoner populations. Older prisoners cost substantially more to incarcerate than younger prisoners as a result of poorer health conditions and special housing considerations. At the same time, they are substantially less likely than younger prisoners to recidivate upon release. These factors result in an interesting policy issue, i.e., a graying prison population associated with increased expenditures and marginal returns in public safety. Scholars (Luallen & Kling, 2014; Porter et al., 2016) have only recently begun to empirically examine the contributors to the growth in the older prisoner population and changing age distributions in prison. In this paper, we hope to test prior studies’ explanations for the older prisoner growth by examining social and political changes at the county-level within one state using data from the Florida Department of Corrections and the U.S. Census Bureau. The current study builds upon prior studies by examining the county-level factors that have contributed to the growth in older adult prisoners (ages 50 and older) who were sentenced in Florida from 1980 to 2010.

Authors

• Samuel Scaggs, Florida State University

• Alex O. Widdowson, Florida State University

• William Bales, Florida State University