Punitive sentencing laws and a broken parole system paved the way for the growing crisis in New Jersey's prisons:

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"Eligibility criteria in the laws permitting the parole or release of medically compromised prisoners are narrow and strict. As a result, the New Jersey Department of Corrections reports that there were 445 more prisoners over age 55 in 2016 than in 2011.

New Jersey’s No Early Release Act limits parole eligibility for people convicted of certain serious
crimes. But long-term elderly prisoners who pass these legislatively imposed benchmarks are still likely
to be denied release by a Parole Board which gives undue weight to their decades old offenses.

Moreover, the Board also imposes long periods between parole hearings, leaving elderly persons to
await death in prison."

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-- Aging in Prison: A Human Rights Problem We Must Fix

The American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch Project 2017 report 

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