By OWEN YOUNG / VANGUARD NEWS GROUP
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York State spent a record $450.6 million on prison healthcare in 2025, according to a February report by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, even as the aging incarcerated population driving these costs reoffends at some of the lowest rates in the system and continues to be denied parole at increasing rates.
The Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, a prison reform advocacy group, is calling on Albany to pass the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills, arguing the state is paying a fortune to incarcerate people who pose little risk to public safety.
The cost of healthcare spending per person in state prisons rose from $5,850 in 2013 to $13,923 in 2025, a 138 percent increase, the Comptroller’s report found. Federal law disallows states from using Medicaid or Medicare funds for incarcerated people, meaning New York bears the full cost of prison healthcare entirely on its own, with the exception of inpatient hospital services…