Dying on the Inside: Women Lifers at Muncy Prison

At Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Muncy, roughly 150 women serving life sentences are growing old behind bars—many incarcerated during the height of mass incarceration in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, they are part of a rapidly aging prison population the system was never designed to care for.

Across the country, the average age of incarcerated people is rising, and the need for medical care is accelerating. At Muncy, infirmary visits have surged nearly 600% in recent years, as chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis take hold earlier and progress faster behind bars.

Dying on the Inside is a deeply reported investigative podcast examining what happens when people age in a system built for punishment—not care. Through the voices of incarcerated women and those working to change the system, the series explores the human, financial, and moral stakes of aging and dying in prison.