The good thing about older prison inmates is that they tend to be less violent than their younger peers. It helps keep down on the guard-staffing expenses when the warden doesn’t have to worry about convicts knifing one another in the exercise yard or sexually assaulting the beta males in the showers.

The bad thing about older prison inmates is that they’re not as healthy. Now there are so many gaffers in the hoosegow that their medical bills are creating a financial problem for the corrections system. Not only has the number of inmates in Virginia age 50 or older increased nearly sevenfold over the past 20 years, reports the Washington Times, the average cost of providing them with specialized health care was nearly seven times the average expenses for younger prisoners in fiscal 2010.

The cost per capita to house an inmate in the previous fiscal year was about $24,000, one corrections officials said. But at Deerfield Correctional Center, a special-needs facility in Capron with an average inmate age of 55, the cost was $29,600.

Politicians are exploring the option of expediting geriatric releases. That’s a clever idea. Shift the health care burden to Medicare and Medicaid!

— JAB