Final month, Greg Mingo, a previously incarcerated activist, was enlisted to advocate for Morris Grady, who, at age 71, was serving a sentence in Ulster County’s Japanese Correctional Facility. He instantly agreed to pen a letter, however Grady died a day later. “[His wife] requested me Thursday, and he handed away Friday,” recalled Mingo.
COVID-19 renewed public consideration on incarcerated elders, given the pandemic’s disproportionate threat for seniors and the underreported unfold in New York State prisons. Advocates pointed to such situations after they efficiently pushed then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021 to grant clemency to Mingo, who’s now 73. The Harlemite lengthy maintained his innocence whereas serving out what legal justice reformers name “demise by incarceration.”
“When COVID got here into the system itself, we have been locked down,” mentioned Mingo. “They saved you within the cell. If someone got here down with COVID or went to the clinic and so they suspected that it is likely to be COVID, they might put them in a cell and isolate them. They didn’t have their property entry to nothing after which attempting to get a bathe [or] something [else] was unhealthy.
“So folks didn’t report that they have been sick as a result of they knew what was ready for them. They figured they might deal with it and keep within the cell. And because of this, COVID was really easy to unfold inside jail.”
But the common age in state jail stays on the rise just some years after the pandemic’s peak, discovered State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in a report revealed final month. All whereas the entire incarcerated inhabitants steadily dips. From 2006 to 2025, the state jail inhabitants for folks between the ages 30-49 plummeted from 34,565 to 18,454. Inside the similar time-frame, the state jail inhabitants for folks ages 60+ grew from 1,698 to 2,836.
“The share of older folks in New York’s prisons has grown over time,” DiNapoli mentioned in an announcement. “We want cautious analysis of insurance policies associated to sentencing, parole, compassionate launch, geriatric and well being prices, and reentry help for this older inhabitants to find out an method that ensures public security and protects taxpayers, whereas lowering incarceration the place warranted.”
His findings included how the state releases older incarcerated people at decrease charges than the entire inhabitants, regardless of nominal felony recidivism charges amongst returning residents over the age of 60 (the Division of Corrections and Group Supervision considers anybody ages 55+ as an “older grownup” because of accelerated getting older from incarceration).
Moreover, the state resumed locking up folks ages 50 and older for “new court docket commitments” like latest felony convictions at elevated charges after a short however substantial lower in 2020. Prior to now, parole violations contributed to a good portion for why elders entered the jail system, however they now solely make up 12% of jail admissions for the age cohort primarily based on the latest knowledge from 2023.
An getting older state jail inhabitants additionally means a large healthcare invoice fronted by taxpayer cash. The report discovered per-person well being service prices for the Division of Corrections and Group Supervision rose from $5,850 in State Fiscal 12 months 2013 to $13,923 in State Fiscal 12 months 2025, and $450.6 million in whole healthcare prices. Nevertheless, the state doesn’t report spending by age group.
Mingo, now a Westchester group chief for the Launch Growing older Folks in Jail (RAPP) marketing campaign, finds the report unsurprising. He factors to the draconian arrest and sentencing practices from many years in the past, which famously exacerbated mass incarceration within the state and throughout the nation. Right now, judges typically sentence defendants much less harshly for comparable convictions than their predecessors (or at occasions, themselves) beforehand threw the guide on.
Current reforms like Elevate the Age and the decriminalization of hashish assist forestall repeating these previous errors. However few levers exist to undo the prevailing harms of the Crime Invoice period because of slim judicial assessment requirements and a flawed parole system. Because of this, many incarcerated elders stay in jail for longer than they might if a court docket sentenced them at the moment, with little recourse past clemency.
Earlier than his commutation, Mingo was not parole eligible till 2031 regardless of getting into the jail system again in 1981. Grady was greater than a decade and a half away from parole eligibility, reported the enchantment again in 2023. However even those that get a listening to aren’t assured an early launch. The parole board’s price of releasing incarcerated elders additionally dipped from 57.2% in 2019 to 48.9% in 2024, based on DiNapoli’s report.
Moreover, racial disparities persist throughout such hearings. An NYU Legislation report discovered white folks have been launched at a lot increased charges than nonwhite folks by parole lately. Different current levers embrace medical parole and compassionate launch, however require severe (and sometimes terminal) well being situations.
Roslyn “Roz” Smith — one other RAPP group chief and the Past Incarceration program supervisor for the worldwide feminist motion V-Day — says fascinated with post-prison life fosters rehabilitation. She recalled getting into the system at age 17 earlier than spending 39 years incarcerated. Oftentimes, she felt like a statistic as a younger Black lady.
“When someone can go to the parole board, someone can apply for clemency — it’s hope,” mentioned Smith. “After I was inside, I utilized for clemency a number of occasions, and that gave me hope, although I didn’t get it. It creates hope and motivation inside, and it permits folks to see one thing sooner or later…it’s like I’m striving for one thing. I’m not being dormant, and I’m not sitting in jail rotting away with none hope for launch.”
The report mentions a number of measures proposed to handle the getting older state jail inhabitants, together with the RAPP-backed Elder and Truthful and Well timed Parole payments. They might grant parole eligibility to incarcerated people ages 55 and older after serving 15 or extra years in jail and enhance the chances for many who see a parole board to really get launched. The laws acquired public help from Rev. Al Sharpton and the NAACP, in addition to Bronx District Lawyer Darcel Clark and former New York State Parole Commissioner Barbara Hanson Treen.
Whereas these payments navigate the state legislature, government clemency powers stay probably the most speedy resolution. In any case, jail deaths don’t comply with a legislative calendar. Commutations don’t necessitate launch — they’ll additionally make somebody parole eligible earlier or cut back a sentence.
For Mingo, clemency meant not solely returning dwelling however benefiting from his freedom. Now 5 years in, he stays lively serving to these nonetheless on the within.
“I hit the bottom working after I got here dwelling by way of advocacy work as a result of when you find yourself in jail and you discover out that you simply’re on the point of get launched — significantly in spite of everything this time, speaking about 4 many years — you have got in your head, ‘what am I gonna do?’” mentioned Mingo. “What helped me reply that query was 5 days earlier than I used to be on the point of come dwelling, I knew this ‘younger’ gentleman. He got here in when he was 16 years previous and…had been inside for 45 years. I bought him again lively, and he’s attempting to work on his case, and I even bought him a job again within the legislation library with me.
“I left him that afternoon. I went to the yard, I got here again about two hours later, and I mentioned one thing to him. He didn’t reply. So I figured he’s taking a nap, however really, he was in a cell, lifeless. The results grew to become private, and that helped me reply the query about what I’m gonna do with the remainder of my life. As a result of you may’t spend that a lot time inside and never be affected by it.”
