Sarah Brayne, “The Long Shadow: Health, Aging and Inequality in the Criminal Legal System,” in conversation with Eujin Park

The United States has more people in prison than any other country, and that population is rapidly aging. Even as the overall prison population has declined over the past two decades, the number of adults aged 55 and older in prison has increased by more than 400% since 1990. Under current trends, one-third of incarcerated individuals will be considered geriatric within five years. In this talk, I analyze the implications of this demographic shift. I ask: Why is the population of people involved in the criminal legal system aging? What are the consequences of criminal-legal system involvement for racial and ethnic disparities in health, aging, and mortality? And, how do older individuals navigate criminal legal and health systems in their later years? Drawing on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, I argue we cannot understand inequalities in aging, health, and mortality today without accounting for the role of the criminal legal system.

Sponsored by the Research Institute of CCSRE.