Late last year, California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office said in its 2024-25 fiscal outlook report that it expects a budget deficit of $68 billion, the largest deficit in state history.
The state is scrambling to stop its cash hemorrhage, but there is an obvious solution they are overlooking that could put a significant dent in the shortfall: Grant parole to incarcerated seniors.
According to the LAO’s own estimate in May 2010, elderly people in California prisons cost two to three times more than an average prisoner. This report said the costs are due to health care services and facilities, as well as housing accommodations, such as showers with handrails.
In fact, in the past, LAO has recommended early release of people over age 55 who are not incarcerated for serious offenses and are deemed nonviolent — because this would save California several millions of dollars.
The state Department of Finance estimated in the 2021-22 fiscal year that it costs the state over $100,000 per year on average to house a prisoner. That means that the state is likely spending $226,000 to $339,000 per year to house elderly prisoners.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Offender Data Points webpage shows that nearly 19,000 people, or about 20% of its incarcerated population of 93,560 people, are 55 and older as of February 2024. That means the state spends roughly $2 billion on people who are the least likely to recidivate.
“It doesn’t make much sense to spend so much money locking [elderly] people up in places that are not only dangerous to their health, but more costly to care for them — especially when there is little public safety argument to justify doing so,” writes Emily Widra, a senior research analyst, in a Prison Policy Initiative report published in August 2023.
The California Legislature established an elderly parole program in 2018 that would grant a parole hearing to incarcerated people over 60 years old who have served at least 25 years of their sentence. But, according to the parole board’s own 2020 report, it denied 82% of elderly parole petitions. (This figure includes people who were 50 and older and had served 20 continuous years.)
Setting aside the moral and ethical considerations of punishing harmless old people, my question is this: Why do the guardians of public trust allow taxpayers to shoulder such a large budget deficit when such a clear solution exists?
