Prison Journalism Project taking a deep dive into “The Graying of America’s Prisons”

The Prison Journalism Project, which aspires to bring “transparency to the world of mass incarceration from the inside and training incarcerated writers to be journalists,” this week is debuting a new “special project on America’s graying prison system.”  This introductory article is fully titled “The Graying of America’s Prisons: In a first-of-its-kind project, PJP contributors chronicle the now ubiquitous experience of growing old behind bars.”  This article starts, and sets the tone for the special project, in this way (links from the original):

Prison makes an awful elderly care facility, yet more prisons are rapidly becoming just that.

Thanks in large part to longer prison sentences and decreasing rates of parole, the number of incarcerated people 55 and older has climbed from 48,000 to 160,000 over the last two decades. 

In 2019, this age cohort made up 63% of state prison deaths for the first time since figures were tracked, according to the most recent data available. 

That’s why Prison Journalism Project is debuting a special project on America’s graying prison system.  Over the coming weeks, we’ll publish stories every Tuesday and Thursday from incarcerated writers that chronicle different facets of growing old behind bars. We will collect the stories below as they appear on the website.  Eric Finley brings us the first essay in the series, in which he explains the explosion of older people inside the Florida Department of Corrections. 

In the weeks to come, writers Mithrellas Curtis and Chanell Burnette will share stories on the legal battle for adequate senior health care inside their Virginia prison.