GBO NEWS: New Journalism Fellowship Deadline; Privatizing Medicare; Francis’ Pope-Mo-Wheel; When Abortion Was a Crime; Medicare Privatization; Aging in Prison; Covid Burden on Latinos; & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations.
Aug. 2, 2022 — Volume 29, Number 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. If you have difficulty getting to the full issue of GBONews with the links provided below, simply go to www.gbonews.org to read the latest or past editions. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. [pfkleyman@gmail.com]. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, you’ll receive the table of contents in an e-mail, so just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities. NOTE ALSO: Some news links below hit paywalls and are inaccessible without subscriptions, although a number of those do allow free access to the first few stories.
In This Issue: Nope, Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now is not about bipartisanship. Her triumph sings, “Well something’s lost, but something’s gained in living every day.” Let’s hear it for the clouds and love.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: ***Journalists in Aging Fellowship Deadline Extended to Aug. 12.
2. THE STORYBOARD
*** “When Abortion Was a Crime,” by Andrea Atkins, PBS Next Avenue;
*** “One Way or Another, the Federal Government Is Still Bent on Pushing Medicare Into Private Hands,” by Trudy Lieberman, Center for Health Journalism/USC Annenberg;
*** “The Crisis Facing Nursing Homes, Assisted Living and Home Care for America’s Elderly,” by Alexandra Moe, Politico;
*** “HHS Proposes Reinstating Nondiscrimination Protections Stripped by Trump Administration,” by Hailey Mensik, Healthcare Dive;
*** “Creator of “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour” Goal Is ‘To Move a Million Hearts,’” by Rhonda Miller, WKU Public Radio.
3. AGEISM WATCH: *** “OK, Boomer Bashers: Beating Ageism Through Policy, Programs and Planning,” Journalists in Aging Fellowship Zoom recording; *** “Scapegoating Older Adults–Ageism Rears its Ugly Head,” media briefing in 4 languages by Ethnic Media Services.
4. WORDS FROM THE WISE: *** “Pope Francis, Slowed by Aging, Finds Lessons in Frailty,” by Jason Horowitz, New York Times.
5. THE STORYBOARD 2
Tales from the Journalists in Aging Fellows:
*** “I Felt So Caught in Between’: Older, LGBT+ Caretakers Face Special Challenges,” by Elissa Lee, LA Daily News/So. California News Group;
*** “Lives Cut Short: COVID-19’s Heavy Burden on Older Latinos,” by Ruben Castaneda, US News & World Report;
*** “Many Younger Baby Boomers May Outlive Their 401(k) Savings, New Research Finds. Here’s Why,” by Annie Nova, CNBC;
*** “Retirement Communities in Florida Range from Fun-in-the-Sun to Aging in Place,” by Ronnie Lovler, Gainesville Sun;
*** TWO-PART SERIES: Part 1 — “Aging in Prison: How Older Generations Fight for Dignity and Release,” Part 2 –“Asian Prisoner Support Committee Celebrates Victories Against ICE,” by Annakai Hawakawa Geslider, Rafu Shimpo;
*** “D.C.’s Struggle to End Homelessness is Getting More Complicated,” by Chelsea Cirruzzo, Axios DC.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE
*** Journalists in Aging Fellowship Deadline Extended to Aug. 12: The fellowship application deadline is now Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. Reporters for the “Class” of 2022-23 will attend the first in-person educational conference in two years of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting, in Indianapolis, Nov. 3 to 6. GSA cosponsors the fellowships the Journalists Network on Generations, publisher of with GBONews.org. We will also consider remote-participation options due to continued COVID concerns.
The selection committee of gerontologists and editorial professionals will choose half of the fellows from national or regional mainstream news outlets, and half from ethnic/racial media in the United States in any language, or other minority media, such as those serving LGBTQ, senior press or disability communities. Staff or freelance journalists are eligible.
Since its founding in 2010, this program has been responsible for more than 750 news stories produced by 201 alumni. It has two goals: to educate journalists about issues in aging, better allowing them to spread a new awareness to general-audience, ethnic, and other minority populations; and to disseminate information about new scientific findings, policy debates, innovations, and evidence-based solutions.
The 2022-23 funders to date include Silver Century Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation, Archstone Foundation, and the NIHCM Foundation.
Applications must include a proposal for a long-term story or series on any topic about aging in America with a sign off by an editor. Details at Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. A continuously updated list of stories from the fellows is available online.
Direct questions about the fellowship to the program’s Co-Directors, Liz Seegert, lizseegert@gmail.com, program coordinator, Journalists Network on Generations, or Todd Kluss, tkluss@geron.org, GSA’s director of communications. You may also contact me, Paul Kleyman, co-founder and senior advisor to the program, pfkleyman@gmail.com.
2. THE STORYBOARD
*** “When Abortion Was a Crime,” by Andrea Atkins, PBS Next Avenue (Jan. 26, 2022): The Dek: “These women broke the law (or went around it) to terminate their pregnancies. More than 50 years later, they can recall every detail.
The Lede: “Before the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Roe v. Wade and legalized abortion in 1973, women who terminated pregnancies were criminals. They skirted laws, lied, kept secrets, jeopardized their fertility and lives, and lived with shame leveled at them by their partners, physicians, society and themselves. Some women attempted to end their pregnancies at home — risking infections and death.
A Quote: “’This was the world women lived in,’ says Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law and author of Dollars for Life — The Antiabortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment. ‘They understood that terminating a pregnancy was complicated and dangerous.’”
The Lived Experience: “But what was it like to risk it all for an abortion? We found women who did just that before the Supreme Court affirmed Roe v. Wade. Some of them asked that their real names be changed because they still suffer shame and trauma. Yet, most of them speak out because they don’t want their daughters and granddaughters to encounter the trauma they faced half a century ago.”
*** “One Way or Another, the Federal Government Is Still Bent on Pushing Medicare Into Private Hands,” by Trudy Lieberman, Center for Health Journalism/USC Annenberg (July 22, 2022): A Pull Quote: “Critics . . . fear that these programs will seek to save money by limiting health care services, some perhaps unnecessary but others not. If they succeed, investors can keep a portion of the savings as profit.”
The Lede: By the end of this decade, the government aims to put the last group of seniors, some 35 million of them still in traditional Medicare, into some version of managed care. That means in eight years, 64 million Americans age 65 and older will get their care from either an “accountable care organization” or a Medicare Advantage plan that will be responsible for managing their health needs, deciding what services they will get, which ones they’ll pay for, and most important for Medicare, attempt to reduce the overall cost of health services for seniors — and presumably saving the government gobs of money. . . The shift would also complete the privatization of what has been a popular and successful social insurance program since 1965.”
The Goal: “Whether that underlying goal will be realized remains to be seen, but at the very least, millions of seniors still in the traditional fee-for-service program and presumably happy with their care need to know what’s in store for them. Seniors, who will be automatically ‘aligned’ as Medicare calls it, in these plans beginning next year, can opt out. One catch is that they will lose their primary care doctor and must find a new one who is not participating in this five-year demonstration project. . . Medicare will likely become increasingly privatized. . . They include private equity firms that aim to profit from managing care. Insurance companies and private equity firms are now teaming up with physician groups to invest in these new accountable care businesses, generating profits for all involved if they can save money for the government.”
The Consequence: “Transforming Medicare into a program managed by private insurers has been a long-sought goal of politicians, dating back to House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s and embraced by successive administrations. The Biden administration is no exception and has set a goal of placing all Medicare beneficiaries in one of these so-called ‘value-based care’ arrangements by 2030. In my view, such a move would fulfill Gingrich’s prophesy of letting ‘Medicare wither on the vine.’”
Oh-Oh: “Whether any of these changes will reduce Medicare’s expenses and improve the health of its beneficiaries, especially people of color whose health CMS is targeting for improvement, is a big unknown. ‘The middlemen are more interested in their own financial well-being than the health of the people they are managing,’ said Dr. Ed Weisbart, who once served as chief medical officer of a managed care organization and now is chair of the Missouri chapter of the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). ‘The investment community is not investing for some noble interest. They’re not investing to improve the public’s health.’”
About changes the federal government announced to the “direct contracting” model in February (including the name change to ACO REACH), Lieberman, a leading investigative health writer/editor for four decades, reports, “Shortly after CMS announced changes to its model, Veda Partners, whose business is providing policy analysis to institutional investors and venture capital firms, told its clients “most of the so-called reforms highlighted by the agency in its press releases are largely superficial in nature or merely reiterate preexisting protections for beneficiaries … In our estimation, the reforms are one part a public relations exercise intended to placate the Biden administration’s critics on the left and one-part modest revisions that should not tangibly impact the for-profit entities currently participating in the model.”
Key Question: “ The underlying but key question: Will this latest Medicare experiment, which brings in more private equity firms that want a piece of the program, really solve Medicare’s cost problem, or will it simply hand over more of the program to private companies seeking to grow their profits? Is this solution really in the best interest of America’s seniors and their health, or another clever instance of American companies mining the health care system for fresh profits?”
*** “The Crisis Facing Nursing Homes, Assisted Living and Home Care for America’s Elderly,” by Alexandra Moe, Politico (July 28, 2022): The Dek: “Hundreds of thousands of workers are leaving the caregiving industry. Unless immigration policies and industry standards change, an aging U.S. is going to face drastic consequences.”
The Lede: “December blurred to January, and the night shift blurred into the day shift, as Momah Wolapaye, 53, rotated warm towels beneath the bedridden at the nursing care wing for the Covid-positive. Repositioning the residents every two hours prevented bed sores, and normally took two aides, but now only one was permitted in rooms. Straws were also forbidden, so after giving sponge baths, Wolapaye spoon-fed sips of water to the elderly, checked their breathing and skin coloration, and calmed the anxious who called into the night silence. Most didn’t understand why they were suddenly in new rooms, sealed with painter’s plastic, and why they needed masks.”
The Nutshell: “Since January 2020, 400,000 nursing home and assisted living staff have quit, citing pandemic exhaustion as well as the low pay and lack of advancement opportunities typical of the field. The job losses arrive when America already faces an elder caregiver shortage, as 10,000 people daily turn 65 and birth rates decline. The labor shortage gripping America’s workforce across industries is felt most acutely in home health care. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, home health and personal care aides are actually the fastest growing industry, projected to grow 33 percent in the next decade, much faster than all occupations. But there still simply aren’t enough workers to fill the demand.”
What’s More: “When Wolapaye emigrated [from Liberia] 10 years ago, 50,000 Diversity Visas were awarded annually. His golden ticket would be nearly impossible today: 18,000 Diversity Visas were awarded last year, with 3,000 forecast for this year. Net migration to the U.S. has plummeted from 1 million in 2016 to 250,000 in 2021. The decline — from pandemic restrictions, shuttered consulates, backlogged visas, Trump immigration policies and changes in global migration — will right itself slightly as the pandemic lifts, says Watson, but not to 2016 levels. With fewer immigrants coming, elder care work goes unfilled.”
But: “Finding more workers to do these jobs is only half the solution: Higher pay and opportunities for career advancement are critical for retention. In fact, the root of what plagues the long-term care industry is not a worker shortage but a wage shortage, says Charlene Harrington, professor emerita of sociology and nursing at UC San Francisco. Most direct care aides are paid on par with fast food restaurants, at $13- $15/hour, and live below the federal poverty line. . . ‘Seventy-five percent of all nursing homes have inadequate staffing,’ says Harrington, an ‘appalling’ reality that research has shown for 20 years but which the pandemic made obvious.”
*** “HHS Proposes Reinstating Nondiscrimination Protections Stripped by Trump Administration,” by Hailey Mensik, Healthcare Dive (July 26, 2022):
In Brief:
* A proposed rule by the Department of Health and Human Services “seeks to strengthen civil rights and nondiscrimination protections for patients and consumers under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act
*A previous version of the rule enacted under the Trump administration limited its scope and power to cover fewer programs and services, officials said on a call with reporters.
* The newly proposed version, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age and disability in healthcare programs, interprets Medicare Part B as federal financial assistance for the first time.”
*** “Creator of “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour” Goal Is ‘To Move a Million Hearts,’” (25 minutes) is Rhonda Miller’s final interview with folksinger Michael Johnathon, creator and host of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. She announced last month that she’s moving on from WKU Public Radio, in Bowling Green, and her “Aged in Kentucky” profiles, after several years as a reporter for the station. Johnathan’s weekly TV and radio broadcast is carried on over 500 non-commercial stations and produced completely by volunteers at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, Ky. He tells how he grew up in new York’s Hudson Valley, occasionally going to a local hall to hear the “old guy” who lived next door sing and tell stories. Only later did he learn that his neighbor was Pete Seeger—who would then guide him in his musical career.
Miller emailed GBONews, “Once I catch my breath,” helps one of her three daughters relocate in Nashville and get grandson, Giovanni, started in daycare, then takes a two-week trip to France in September, she hopes to get back to “some writing or podcasting.”
3. AGEISM WATCH
*** “OK, Boomer Bashers: Beating Ageism Through Policy, Programs and Planning,” is the Zoom recording of the July 27 panel for the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. This highly informative and powerful session provides an expert primer on the depth and extent of ageism and potential personal and policy solutions.
The panel, moderated by journalist Rich Eisenberg, former managing editor of PBS Next Avenue, include such speakers as the co-authors of the recent JAMA Network Open study on “Experiences of Everyday Ageism and the Health of Older US Adults,” Julie Ober Allen, MPH, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Exercise Science, University of Oklahoma, and Erica Solway, PhD, MSW, MPH, Associate Director, National Poll on Healthy Aging, and Manager of Signature Initiatives and Partnerships, Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation, University of Michigan.
Also, Kevin Prindiville, Executive Director, Justice in Aging and a Member, California Master Plan for Aging’s Equity Work Group, described the state’s five major goals for 2030 (housing, health, inclusion and equity, caregiving, affordability) and how they provide reporters with questions for their own state authorities. The plan, released in 2020, as the pandemic began and as the state faced major deficits, the ongoing working groups were, Prindiville said, able to persuade the government not to enact planned budget cuts to programs for seniors.
Eunice Lin Nichols, of Encore.org, addressed why it is ”important and urgent to shift the narrative of zero-sum competition between the generations to one of intergenerational connection and collaboration.” Nichols, who recently was named Encore’s Co-CEO with the nonprofit’s founder and author Marc Freeman, had led the group’s Gen2Gen Program and its $100,000 Purpose Prize (now a project of AARP). She discussed cross generational research by Encore showing that young and older groups largely reject media depictions of generations in conflict. “I think my colleagues have talked a lot about ageism everyday ageism and the impact on how we behave and what we do. We need to create more opportunities to work across generations for social change and easier ways to find them,” she said.
*** “Scapegoating Older Adults–Ageism Rears its Ugly Head” (“Where are the Gray Panthers When We Need Them?”), media briefing by Ethnic Media Services (July 15, 2022): This is a one-hour Zoom on YouTube was presented in English plus UN-style simultaneous translations in Spanish, Mandarin and Korean.
Speakers included: Louise Aronson, MD, geriatrician, and professor of medicine at UC San Francisco author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life, a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist, who explained the disproportionate impact of ageism on women. Patricia M. D’Antonio, VP of the Gerontological Society of America, and Executive Director, Reframing Aging Initiative, discussed solutions to combat ageism, at both an individual and societal level. GBONews Editor Paul Kleyman talked about the recent flare-ups of ageism in political media, and Julie Allen was on hand to describe her research about everyday ageism and its health impacts. The session was also covered in an EMS article headlined, “Everyday Ageism Impacts Physical and Emotional Health of Older Adults,” by Sunita Sohrabji, (July 25, 2022).
4. WORDS FROM THE WISE
*** “Pope Francis, Slowed by Aging, Finds Lessons in Frailty,” by Jason Horowitz, New York Times (July 28, 2022): The Dek: “On a visit to Canada, the pontiff, 85, used his own vulnerability to demand dignity and respect for older people in a world increasingly populated by them.”
The Lede: “LAC STE. ANNE, Alberta — When Pope Francis landed in Canada this week, he lumbered out of a car on the tarmac, hobbled with difficulty to an awaiting wheelchair. . . On a makeshift stage outside an Indigenous cemetery in Alberta, the world watched as he gathered his strength and grasped the arms of the aide, who lifted him out of his wheelchair. . . Hundreds of worshipers waiting for Francis in a shrine adorned with the crutches and canes. . . gasped in unison as the pope’s wheelchair hit a snag and he lurched dangerously forward. . . But seeing Francis in his increasing frailty and advancing old age was very much a point of his visit.”
The Point: “While the pontiff’s main mission in Canada was what he called a ‘pilgrimage of penance’ to apologize to Indigenous people for the horrific abuses they endured in church-run residential schools, it was also a pilgrimage of senescence in which the pontiff, 85, used his own vulnerability to demand dignity for the aged in a world increasingly populated by them.”
A New People: “This year, Francis has sought to give shape to that thinking with a catechesis series, or religious instruction, on aging. Spread out over 15 speeches, with three more expected in August, according to the Vatican, he has called the booming population of the old a ‘veritable new people’ in human history. ‘Never as many as now, never as much risk of being discarded,’ he said. . . Frailty, he argued, ‘is a teaching for all of us’ and could bring about an ‘indispensable’ reform in society, because ‘the marginalization of the elderly — both conceptual and practical — corrupts all seasons of life, not just that of old age.’”
The Pope-Mo-Wheel: “Exposure to decline and frailty, he noted, enriches the young. Reciprocally, he has said, ‘there is a gift in being elderly, understood as abandoning oneself to the care of others. . . You’re telling me; I have to go around in a wheelchair, eh?’ he said in one speech. ‘But that’s how it is, that’s life’ . . . He seems to have embraced the advantages of a wheelchair. After addressing a largely Indigenous congregation at an Edmonton church, he took a veritable joyride among the cheering faithful outside, causing a chaotic scene as his aide even popped a wheelie to lower him over a curb.”
5. THE STORYBOARD 2
Following are recent stories from the 2021-22 Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, the collaboration of GBONews publisher, the Journalists Network on Generations, and the Gerontological Society of America.
*** “I Felt So Caught in Between’: Older, LGBT+ Caretakers Face Special Challenges,” by Elissa Lee, LA Daily News/So. California News Group (May 18, 2022): The Dek: 2.7 million LGBT+ adults older than age 50 in America. About 9% of all caregivers in the U.S. are LGBT+.
The Lede: “Daniel Diaz lives alone now, by himself in his Signal Hill apartment, a space steeped in memories. He and his husband, Robert Morris, had been providing care for Diaz’s mother, Gloria, since 2012 in their apartment. Morris died in 2018; Mrs. Diaz died in 2020.”
Key Stats: “Diaz is one of 2.7 million LGBT+ adults older than age 50 in America. About 9% of all caregivers in the U.S. are LGBT+. Members of the LGBT+ community also provide care at a much higher rate — 1 in 5 LGBT+ people provide care, compared to 1 in 6 non-LGBT+ people, according to SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization for LGBT elders.”
The Nutshell: “This population faces unique challenges — they are twice as likely to live alone and four times more likely to not have children, who often provide caregiver support as people age.
*** “Many Younger Baby Boomers May Outlive Their 401(k) Savings, New Research Finds. Here’s why,” by Annie Nova, CNBC (June 19, 2022): The Lede: “Unfortunately, many younger baby boomers and members of subsequent generations who don’t have access to a traditional pension could outlive the funds in their 401(k) accounts, a recent study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found. The economists compared the drawdown speeds between those with traditional pensions and those with only 401(k) savings accounts. Although most research on how long retirees’ money lasts is based on the former category, the majority of people now fall into the latter.”
A Quote: “’What most of people have had the chance to observe were people with traditional pensions,’ said Gal Wettstein, a senior research economist at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, pointing out that 401(k) workplace retirement plans only became widespread in the 1980s. . . . Retirees with 401(k)s often spend savings quickly. . . One of the advantages of the pension system was that it reassured you how much you could afford to spend, practically, in that it would never run out, and in the advice-sense, too, because it says, ‘Here, you can spend this much, because next month, you’ll get the same amount again,’ Wettstein said. ‘A 401(k) doesn’t give you that.’”
Going, Going . . . : “The fast drawdown of savings in 401(k) accounts means that many retirees depending on them may be at risk of exhausting their funds entirely by the age of 85, although around half of them will live beyond then, the study said.”
*** “Retirement Communities in Florida Range from Fun-in-the-Sun to Aging in Place,” by Ronnie Lovler, Gainesville Sun (June 6, 2022):
The Lede: “Jim and Linda Schlaefer were at home in Lucas, Texas, one recent winter afternoon when they got a call at 4:30 p.m. from a real estate agent at The Villages in Central Florida, the largest adult community in the United States. . . . eventually they signed a contract on the home where they are living now.”
The Nutshell: “Inequities in housing options for those who are aging may become more of an issue in Florida and throughout the United States in the coming years as people live longer, and often healthier lives. Many age-specific or age-segregated Florida retirement communities promote the idea that, day in and day out, a good time will be had by all who opt for retirement living here.”
And: “Many feel that older people benefit from living in communities where they can interact with people of all ages. . . . ‘The question of intergenerational relationships is very hot,’ [University of Florida, Gainesville] Prof. Stephen M. Golant said. ‘If you dare say anything that suggests that older people should be interacting with younger people, at this time in history you’re on the right side of the argument.’”
*** “Lives Cut Short: COVID-19’s Heavy Burden on Older Latinos,” by Ruben Castaneda, US News & World Report (June 1, 2022): The Dek: The coronavirus pandemic has eaten away at the Latino edge in life expectancy in staggering fashion, and taken a disproportionate toll on older members of the community compared with whites.
The Lede: “LOS ANGELES – In December 2020, about 10 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Javier Perez-Torres boarded a bus from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico, to buy a bracelet for the upcoming birthday of one of the five granddaughters who lived with him and his wife. . . Perez-Torres wore a mask on the bus. But shortly after he returned to his family’s apartment in the working-class neighborhood of Boyle Heights, just east of downtown Los Angeles, he fell ill with COVID-19. . . . In early February of last year, a nurse called to let her know her partner of more than 40 years had died.”
The Nutshell: “During the first year of the crisis, Latinos age 65 and older died of COVID-19 at 2.1 times the rate of older whites,” according to a research brief published in May by Rogelio Saenz, a professor in the Department of Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Marc Garcia, an assistant professor of sociology at Syracuse University. . . . “In 2021, older Latinos died at 1.6 times the rate of older whites, and into late April of this year, older Hispanics had died at 1.2 times the rate of older whites.” They also authored a related study in Journals of Gerontology research study. Casteneda notes, “Saenz attributes the narrowing difference to COVID-19 death rates among older whites in red states where vaccination rates are lower.”
And: “In 2019, Hispanics in the U.S. had the highest uninsured rate among listed racial or ethnic groups at 18.7%, according to Census Bureau data. Only 50% of Hispanics had private health insurance – compared with nearly 75% of non-Hispanic whites.”
*** TWO-PART SERIES: Part 1 — “Aging in Prison: How Older Generations Fight for Dignity and Release,” by Annakai Hawakawa Geslider, Rafu Shimpo (May 28, 2022): The Lede: “Chyrl Lamar is an advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, an organization with chapters in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Lamar was incarcerated in September 1986. For the next 34 years she lived at the Central California Women’s Facility, a prison in Central Valley’s Madera County. Lamar was released December 2020, at age 69. On Jan. 17, 2022, she was discharged off parole. On top of the difficulties of prison life, as Lamar got older she began experiencing the particular difficulties of aging behind bars. One was the requirement that elders continue working, despite their mounting physical challenges and getting sick more often.”
The Nutshell: “While age 65 conventionally defines the beginning of older age in the U.S. population outside of prison, old age in prison is typically marked at age 50 or 55, the Epidemiological Review reports. This is because inadequate healthcare in prisons accelerates the onset and progression of many chronic conditions associated with aging.
The Stats: “According to the Bureau of Justice, between 1993 and 2013 the number of people aged 55 or older in U.S. state prisons who were sentenced to more than one year increased by 400 percent, from 26,300 in 1993 to 131,500 in 2013. In 2020, there were around 274,000 older adults incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, the Washington, D.C.-based organization Sentencing Project reports. In the last 40 years, changes in sentencing law and policy have created a 500 percent increase in the number of people in the prison system.”
* Part 2 –“Asian Prisoner Support Committee Celebrates Victories Against ICE,” (June 1, 2022): The Lede: “The Oakland-based Asian Prisoner Support Committee supports incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people of Asian/Pacific Islander descent and their families. The organization leads educational programs in prisons, helping people get back on their feet after release from prison, and organizes anti-deportation campaigns.
The Nutshell: “Deportation poses a threat for some undocumented incarcerated Asian/Pacific Islanders, who can be picked up by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) upon release from prison and deported to countries of birth — often for the first time since they were young, and where they may have no family or community. Over the past months, the Asian Prisoner Support Committee [APSC ] has been advocating the safe release of Vithea Yung, a Cambodian refugee from Long Beach, from California’s prison system. Despite completing his prison sentence of more than 25 years and earning parole, Yung faced immediate transfer to ICE and possible deportation because he was born outside of the U.S.”
What’s More: “In late March, the APSC, the ICE Out of California Coalition, and fellow community members held a rally on the steps of the L.A. Board of Supervisors building, calling for Yung’s release and the passage of the VISION Act — a State Senate bill that would block Immigration officials from detaining people after release from prison or jail, effectively furthering their incarceration. . . On April 14, after months of putting pressure on public officials, ICE announced it would not deport Yung to Cambodia after his release from state prison. It was a rare case. Between Jan. 1, 2020 and Nov. 30, 2021, the California prison system transferred 2,600 community members to ICE detention centers — despite these people having earned release from custody, public records show.”
*** “D.C.’s Struggle to End Homelessness is Getting More Complicated,” by Chelsea Cirruzzo, Axios DC (May 19, 2022): The Dek: D.C.’s homeless population is aging, introducing a new and urgent set of challenges to the city’s race to end homelessness.
The Lede: “The city has a plan to end homelessness by 2025, but six years into the effort, it’s still behind in helping individuals find housing — right at a time when more of the aging boomer population comes into the system. According to the annual count, 3,403 single adults were homeless, and 39% of them were aged 55 and older. That over-representation of seniors has been steady for years.”
The Wrinkle: “Unhoused seniors have far more complex health needs than their housed counterparts.” For instance, “Unhoused people in their 50s and 60s in three cities examined by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had health conditions more akin to housed people who were 20 years older.”
A Smarter Approach: D.C. does have a promising housing model — tested during the pandemic — that could be expanded and tailored for seniors, specifically. . . . ‘We’ve seen [that] being able to really provide an integrated care model with behavioral health and health care and other services on-site focused on helping people get into the kind of housing they need,’ [DC’s DHS Director Laura Zeilinger] says.
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2022 JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
To subscribe for free or unsubscribe, or if you have technical problems receiving issues of GBO or if you’d like to be removed from the list, e-mail me at paul.kleyman@earthlink.net, or pfkleyman@gmail.com or phone me at 415-821-2801