The purpose of this study was to correlate the characteristics of 1,051 elderly inmates (those over 50 years of age) in the Federal Bureau of Prisons with the number of medical encounters for selected chronic health problems. "Total medical encounters" was the dependent variable. Independent variables were age, sex, length of sentence, and the number of encounters for the following selected medical conditions: noninsulindependent diabetes, insulin-dependent diabetes, arteriosclerotic heart disease, hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study used a multiple regression analysis for a population mostly White (78.7%), predominately male (93.0%), with a mean age of 57.12 years. In this study, the researcher found increased health care utilization due to the presence of hypertension (19.2%), arteriosclerotic heart disease (5.4%), diabetes (3.4%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (2.5%), length of sentence, and age.