More people are dying in Virginia prisons as the state’s incarcerated population grows older, according to a new report from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.
The agency found 111 people died in state correctional facilities in 2025, up from 97 the year before. The findings come from Virginia’s second annual deaths-in-custody report, which tracks deaths involving law enforcement agencies, prisons, jails and juvenile correctional facilities.
Statewide, the report identified 216 people died in custody during 2025. Of those deaths, 111 happened in state prisons, 58 took place in local or regional jails and 47 while in law enforcement custody. No deaths were reported in juvenile correctional facilities.
The median age of the people who died in Virginia prisons in 2025 was 63. Most prison deaths with a known cause were attributed to natural causes, according to the report.
Wanda Bertram, communications strategist at Prison Policy Initiative, said the trend is partly rooted in tough-on-crime policies from decades ago, when lengthy prison sentences were more common. Bertram said many of today’s older inmates received sentences during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
“What’s happening now is that people who were given those sentences in previous decades are getting older,” Bertram said.
As of 2020, 30% of people serving life sentences were at least 55 years old, according to Bertram. She said more than 61,000 incarcerated people nationwide aged 55 and older are serving sentences that will likely keep them in prison for the rest of their lives.
“Another reason why the prison population is getting older is because, simply, more people who are older are being arrested today,” Bertram said. She said older adults account for a much larger share of arrests today than they did in the 1990s.
The aging prison population also raises questions about costs. Older inmates require more medical treatment and long-term care than younger prisoners. As Virginia’s prison population ages, the financial burden could grow.
A study by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found older prisoners cost about three times as much to incarcerate as younger inmates because of their increased healthcare needs.
“People at this age are going to need a lot of care and expensive medical treatment<> no matter whether they’re incarcerated or not,” said Bertram. “Putting them in prison only adds to the resources that are expended.”
Bertram argues that incarceration is often one of the most expensive ways to care for elderly people with significant medical needs, particularly as prisons nationwide struggle with staffing and resource shortages.
A Prison Policy Initiative report from February shows that the broad system of mass incarceration in the U.S. costs the government and families of system-involved people at least $445 billion every year.
The report recommends several steps aimed at reducing deaths in Virginia prisons, including:
The report notes that Virginia’s prison deaths have gradually increased over the past 20 years, a trend researchers say is likely to continue as the incarcerated population ages.
Researchers with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services did not respond to WTOP’s request for comment.
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