Aging inmates have cost New Hampshire an additional $2 million in medical care this year.

Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn has asked lawmakers for permission to transfer the money from other areas of his budget. He said medical care for emergency or extraordinary occurrences is the main factor, with the biggest spending coming in cardiac care, surgery and cancer treatments.

Wrenn told the Fiscal Committee that the trend is due to an increasingly aging population with lifestyles issues that predate their incarceration. In one bit of good news, he said the prison has saved $142,000 by switching to general cholesterol control medications.