ABSTRACT
Seven percent of New Jersey’s resident prison population is growing old while incarcerated. As of January 1987, there were 8,669 individuals within the prison complex, 599 of whom will be fifty-five or older before they reach parole eligibility. The impact of the new sentencing structure was felt in 1981, when a state of emergency in State and County institutions was promulgated by Governor Kean. There is no uniform cut-off age to measure when inmates should be called "elderly," "aged," "senior inmates" or "older." The retirement age of 65 for Social Security purposes is the most frequent age used nationwide; however, many 65-year-olds would disagree that 65 marks the passage of middle age. The Federal Bureau of Investigation uses 65 as a cutoff point, while some state jurisdictions, including the Federal system, use 45 as the passage to old age, other state jurisdictions use 60 or 55.
