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More than 1,100 people age 65 or older are locked away in Alabama prisons, putting a group already highly susceptible to the deadly COVID-19 virus at an even greater risk, according to an SPLC analysis of the state’s prison system.

The findings underscore a deadly situation facing prison systems across a nation in the throes of a global pandemic.

Overall, 942 people age 65 and older are housed in Alabama’s close- and medium-security facilities, all but two of which were far over their design capacity in January 2020. The Hamilton Aged and Infirm facility, which houses elderly incarcerated people, holds 95 people age 65 and older. The facility is operating at more than twice its capacity. Among this older population in the state’s prisons, 334 people are classified as minimum security – meaning they are “not seen as a risk to themselves or others,” according to ADOC’s Male Inmate Handbook – despite 308 of them having violent offenses on their records.

The findings beg the question of why so many of these incarcerated people, many of whom have already served decades behind bars, remain there when the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), paroles bureau or Gov. Kay Ivey could consider this population for humanitarian release. Instead, they remain incarcerated within a prison system which even before the pandemic saw people in its custody die due to overcrowding and the failure to provide adequate health care.

Read the full story to learn about the dangers those 65 and over in Alabama prisons face.

The Editors