That this was done under court order, rather than voluntarily, shows the political difficulty of taking aggressive steps to curb mass incarceration. A record number of people are serving life sentences, according to the Sentencing Project, a group that advocates improvements to the criminal justice system. The statistics released on Thursday showed that the nature of the prison population has changed in a number of ways. As measures like parole and compassionate release have been curtailed, or even eliminated in some places, prisoners have become older and more costly. According to the report, more than one in 10 prison inmates in 2017 were 55 years or older.

Source: International New York Times April 25, 2019 17:23 UTC