The prison system is being used as a "high security nursing home" for older inmates and sending them to an early grave, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.
The league said the number of prisoners older than 60 trebled from 450 to 1,441 between 1993 and 2003 - enough to fill three prisons.
But just four male prisons have facilities for dealing with pensioners' health and social care needs.
League director Frances Crook said: "It is not a rational use of resources. Continuing to imprison older people at this rate raises the spectre of the Prison Service having to take over whole cemeteries."
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Details of government consultations
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