One of my new year's resolutions is to begin to read the newspaper more. In yesterday's edition of the Columbus Dispatch, I read this article that really effected me.
I am interested in knowing your thoughts and what do you think we as a community, not just BLACK, not just GREEK, can do to rehabilitate parolees, specifically the elderly parolees. When I became a Delta, I was SOCIAL ACTION chair for our chapter and one of our major focuses within the sorority was KEMBA SMITH and her imprisonment. Not every case is as highly publicized as hers was but there are 1000s more Kembas in our prison system. Not only that but not all of them have the strong family background that she was fortunate to have which causes a lot of children to wind up in the foster care system. Reading this article further underscored my belief that something has to be done, but what? Who will do it? When?
ELDERLY PAROLEES DON'T FIT IN; FEW STATES PROVIDE ASSISTANCE
Tuesday, January 1, 2002
NEWS 01B
By Paul Singer
Associated Press
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Rheumatoid arthritis and congestive heart failure afflict Jacqueline Green. She also suffers from a nonmalignant brain tumor that causes hypertension.
Green, 60, spent the past 10 years in prison on armed robbery and drug charges. Released to a Goodwill Industries halfway house in November, she says she feels like an alien.< "Getting on the bus is kind of weird,'' she said. "I'm paranoid, and then when I get downtown, I'm looking at all the places, and I'm like, 'Wow, it's foreign to me.' ''
Goodwill has helped Green apply for Social Security benefits and food stamps, because Ohio, like other states, has no programs designed to help older offenders readjust.
The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that U.S. prisons paroled 8,900 offenders older than 55 in 1999, the most recent year for which numbers are available. That's up from 5,200 in 1990.
Drew Molloy, president-elect of the American Probation and Parole Association and a corrections program manager in Virginia, said he knows of no state with a program for older ex-offenders.
"It's a relatively new phenomenon for us,'' he said. "That's why you are not seeing a whole lot of programs that have addressed this issue, if any.''
Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the state runs post-prison assistance programs for job training, drug treatment and housing but none specifically for older offenders.
Halfway houses and parole officers are expected to connect parolees with senior programs. Some private nonprofit groups help seniors in prison or help get them released, but they do not provide assistance once they are on their own.
John Wells, 55, lives in a Cleveland halfway house after 15 years in and out of prison for drug-related offenses.
He said his age has made the transition more difficult.
"Everything is different,'' Wells said. "They've got car phones and cellphones. All that stuff is different to me. Even CD players, they didn't have that stuff when I was out.
"And the people you thought you knew, they have changed completely. You don't know them anymore, and they don't know you.''
He earned a degree in culinary arts while in prison, but his age makes him less employable.
"An older person always has more to offer an employer than a younger dude does, because an older person won't take time off. He doesn't mind working,'' Wells said. "There should be more employers willing to give an older man a chance, but a lot of them don't.''
Many longtime prisoners such as Wells and Green have lost basic organizational and life skills, such as cleaning house, paying bills and traveling, said Gladys Hall, executive director of Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland.
"We travel-train older offenders because they no longer know how to get from one place to another,'' she said. "Transportation has changed; the way you get on a bus has changed.''
Alvin Johnson, 53, a former inmate who works as a counselor at a service center for ex-offenders in San Francisco, said states are willing to accommodate the elderly in prison rather than spend money on programs that help care for them on the outside.
Elderly ex-offenders might qualify for regular state aging assistance, but many do not know it is available or how to get it, Johnson said. They might be shunned by nursing homes worried about protecting other residents or simply not have the money to go.
Margot Bach, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections, said all offenders receive the same individual assistance.
"We don't generally have a lot of programs that are targeted at older parolees,'' she said. "If they are eligible for benefits from the government, we're going to make every effort to help them get it.''
In East Cleveland, Green said her 14 children have scattered. Two were imprisoned with her, and she hopes her oldest daughter eventually will join her in drug treatment.
Ellis Rowe, 54, of Philadelphia was released from prison in March 2000 after serving 10 years for sexual assault.
"I lost both my parents while I was in,'' Rowe said.
He has lost contact with his daughters. His 27-year-old son is serving a life sentence for murder.
The adjustment to life outside prison has been difficult, Rowe said, partly because of the time he missed and the habits he had to break.
It was several months before he was willing to go outside after 9 p.m., Rowe said, because that was lockdown time in prison.
He also learned in prison not to make friends.
"You can't trust anybody; you don't keep anybody close,'' Rowe said.
"There are so many changes coming at you so fast,'' he said. "It's like if you step on some grease and you slip forward. It's that kind of sensation.''
Johnson said he spent most of 20 years in prison for various offenses before receiving drug treatment in 1995. Once he made the decision to turn around his life, he realized the challenges he faced.
"You have the stigma of being on parole and you don't have marketable skills,'' he said.
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Elderly Parolees
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