PRISON FELLOWSHIP: Maine

One of the consequences of over two decades of “tough on crime” legislation has been the steady increase in elderly residents in our nation’s jails and prisons. A 2015 Human Rights Watch report notes that the number of prisoners above the age of 55 has increased threefold in less than a decade, and that many of those men and women will remain incarcerated well into their 70s and 80s—if they leave prison at all.