Watch This: Elderly parole

The Louisiana legislature passed a bill this summer to enable non-violent, non-sex offenders to go before a parole board upon turning 60 years of age, even if their original sentence did not include the opportunity for parole. The bill’s passage was the culmination of an unlikely partnership between the ACLU of Louisiana and Angola State Penitentiary Warden, Burl Cain. Their appeal to the legislature was simple: we can’t afford to incarcerate so many inmates who pose no threat to society. In Oklahoma, the number of inmates 50 and older is expected to grow by 48 percent between FY 2008 and 2013, nearly five times faster than the general prison population. This video, produced by the ACLU, interviews inmates and advocates to illuminate the implications of an aging prison population.