Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, housed in Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication, will release its newest investigative podcast series, “Dying on the Inside: Women Lifers at Muncy Prison,” on April 22, shining a light on the growing crisis of aging and dying in America’s prisons.
Last year, the Logan Center’s “MOVE: Untangling the Tragedy” podcast with The Philadelphia Inquirer, exploring the 1985 MOVE bombing, won two Signal Awards, including Gold for Best Writing and Silver for Best History Podcast.
This new five-part series, hosted by Emmy Award-winning WHYY journalist Cherri Gregg, explores the human, fiscal and moral implications of a rapidly aging prison population—focusing on women serving life and long-term sentences at State Correctional Institute (SCI) Muncy, Pennsylvania’s largest women’s state prison. The 30-40-minute episodes will run for five weeks starting April 22.
At SCI Muncy, roughly 150 women serving life sentences are aging behind bars—many of them incarcerated during the height of mass incarceration in the 1980s and 1990s. Prisons like SCI Muncy are not equipped to handle the complex healthcare needs of elderly inmates. Poor diet, lack of exercise and inadequate medical care have created a growing public health crisis that receives little attention.
The series brings the stories of these women to the forefront, combining personal narratives, expert analysis and national data to explore the financial, physical and emotional costs of incarcerating elderly women.
“This podcast is about more than prison—it’s about how we define justice at the end of a life sentence,” said Gregg. “We’re asking hard questions about dignity, cost, and whether a system built for punishment knows what to do with aging human beings.”
The podcast also investigates potential solutions, including broader compassionate release policies and geriatric parole laws, offering ways to reduce the burden of incarceration on both individuals and society.
Yvonne Latty, director of the Logan Center, served as co-executive producer and writer for the podcast.
“Cherri and I spent two years working on this project, and what is really special about it is that you hear from women who have spent decades in prison and need to be heard,” said Latty. “We had an incredible team that included Temple students who worked in various roles in the production.”
“Dying on the Inside: Women Lifers at Muncy Prison” is a production of Create. Genius. Media and Temple University's Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting. Follow the podcast on social media for info about events, issues around mass incarceration and history @dyingontheinsidepodcast.
The trailer is live now, available wherever you get your podcasts.