A new geriatric release report is shedding light on what it's like to age in prison, and it recommends new legislation to help the release of prisoners who are at least 60 years old and have served a sentence of at least 20 years.

Currently, under state law, even if elderly prisoners qualify for parole, they can be denied release by the parole board for decades old offenses.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has more on that legislation that advocates say will reduce the prison population, save money and maintain public safety.

For a lot of older people, it's like they just waiting to die.

You know what I'm saying?

55 year old Calvin Bass grew up behind bars.

He went to prison at age 14, convicted in a Newark murder case.

He spent 38 years there, where he often volunteered to sit with inmates in palliative care.

Men in their 70s and 80s in one of our greatest fears is dying in prison.

Why?

Because we feel when you die in prison, your soul is not at peace.

It's really a matter not just of some sort of radical criminal justice reform project, but of pure humanity.

People who are sick and old should not have to die in jail.

Attorney Larry Lustberg spoke at a news conference promoting geriatric parole for a new Jersey, where prisons house almost a thousand inmates over the age of 60.

But while many states offer geriatric parole for aging inmates, Jersey doesn't.

Advocates say, unless a prisoner suffering from a terminal illness or permanent disability, these folks want to change that with new legislation.

People who are released at the age of 60 and older almost never go back to prison.

And so it's a distinct population.

We've been petitioned by many families who want to take, their elderly loved one into their home for their last years of their life.

This is a compassionate course, both by the de minimis risk by virtue of their age, but also the appreciable cost savings which would endure to the benefit of the state, particularly in terms of health care and Medicaid.

Jim McGreevy heads new Jersey Reentry Corporation, which helps released inmates rejoin their community.

He says Jersey pays $74,000 a year on average to house and care for each inmate, but health care costs soar as prisoners age.

Geriatric release could save new Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars.

We're at a time of fiscal difficulties, and so the the imperative to save money will be a compelling one.

But leaving that aside, the sense that the too many old people are being housed in our jails and prisons is one that's really sweeping the country.

The corporation unveiled a geriatric release report.

It recommends prisoners get certificates of eligibility to petition the court for release if they're at least 60 years old and serve 20 years or more, or 62 and serve 30 years or more in murder cases.

The judge should consider an inmate state of rehabilitation, disciplinary record, psychiatric examination if warranted, and the victim's statement.

New Jersey studied this issue for years.

A Special Criminal Sentencing Commission came up with an almost identical proposal, and this includes many of the factors that judges will have to consider.

This is a robust and rigorous review of the petitioner's background, and of the suitability of the petitioner to be released.

Under this proposal, the inmate would enjoy a presumption of release unless they're a danger to a person or the community simply not ready for independence, or if their release is against the interests of justice, to angry, in fact, as it always remained, a crime was committed.

Okay, but when do the mitigating factors weigh in?

When the individual that stand before you is no longer the same person that committed that crime 20 or 30 years ago?

The report includes draft legislation, and Hudson Democrat Senator Brian Stack stated he supports a geriatric release bill, noting by facilitating their reentry into society, we not only promote rehabilitation, but also enhance public safety and compassion in our communities.

The measure also requires housing and other supports, like enrollment in Medicare or Medicaid, to make sure they can get health care, to provide all the requisite psychological and physical supports that somebody needs.

It just goes to show you don't have the proper support and have people on the outside that believe in second chances.

I would still be behind the wall.

Advocates are hoping to move the bill with bipartisan support.

In Trenton, I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.