OKLAHOMA CITY — A graying prisoner population in Oklahoma is running up a tab in medical and dental bills.

Last year, prisoners age 70 or older were behind more than $1.8 million in medical and dental bills, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Now, in hopes of saving money and relieving prison overcrowding, state Sen. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, wants to make it easier to parole some of the oldest, non-violent offenders.

Floyd is calling for looser parole requirements for inmates 70 or older. To be eligible, inmates must have served 10 years or a third of their sentence, pose a minimum safety risk, and not be serving time for violent offenses or crimes that require them to register as a sex offender.

“I think that the Legislature and the people of Oklahoma are very much aware that we have an incarceration epidemic right now,” Floyd said. “With criminal justice reform being on everybody’s mind … maybe this is something that would be more acceptable for people.

“It’s just one more mechanism to try to reduce our prison population on the back end,” she said.

As of December, only 286 inmates were at least 70 years old, compared to a burgeoning prison population of 27,000, and Floyd notes not all senior inmates would be eligible for parole.

But lawmakers are facing an $868 million budget shortfall and growing health care costs for the state’s prisoners.

In the past decade, inmate health costs have grown nearly $17.7 million, noted prisons spokesman Alex Gerszewski. Many who live unhealthy lifestyles before prison show up with complicated medical conditions.

The state spent $84.4 million on inmate health care last budget year. By law, taxpayers are on the hook for those bills for people locked up in prisons and halfway houses.

“Inmates who are older cost a lot more, and it takes additional security to monitor those areas,” Gerszewski said. Inmates over 50 make up one of the fastest growing segments of the prison population, he noted.

The department supports Floyd’s idea, he said, in hopes of opening up prison beds, reducing costs and freeing staff to focus on other priorities.

Floyd said there’s support elsewhere for releasing older prisoners.

“The majority of people don’t want to continue to incarcerate non-violent offenders if there are safe ways to let (them) out,” she said.

Rep. Bobby Cleveland, R-Slaughterville, chairman of the House’s Public Safety Committee, said he hasn’t reviewed the particulars of Floyd’s proposal, but on the surface it seems to be a good concept.

“We’re looking for ways we can save the state money, and we’re looking for ways that we can deal with these offenders that are in for non-violent offenses,” he said.

Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhi.com.