It's now costing New York taxpayers an arm and a leg to pay for medical care for the state's older prison inmates. Last year there were more than two thousand inmates who were 60 years or older.
That's a 46 percent increase in the last ten years. The state spent 380 million dollars on medical care for those inmates last year alone. A new report from the State Comptrollers office about the stats is now suggesting that the state consider an early release program for non-violent older inmates who are probably not prone to committing more crimes.
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli says the state has to confront the challenges of an aging inmate population before costs skyrocket out of control.