[Ppnews] Golden Girls Behind Bars

[Political Prisoner News]

Golden Girls Behind Bars - Aging Prisoners Yearn for Freedom

<http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=90940ea33392050bde1225dd95067e36>http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=90940ea33392050bde1225dd95067e36

New America Media, News Feature, Viji 
Sundaram,  Cliff Parker, Posted: Feb 09, 2009

CORONA, Calif. – Last month, prisoner Number W 
41465 passed away, her greatest wish unfulfilled: to die a free person.

Eighty-eight years old, nearly blind and deaf, 
her mind enfeebled by Alzheimer's and in the 
terminal stages of kidney failure, Helen Loheac 
had hoped to spend her last days at Crossroads, 
Inc., a transitional home for formerly 
incarcerated women in Claremont, Calif. For 10 
years, Crossroads had been waiting to take her in.

A protest a couple of years ago called for the 
release of elderly prisoners like Helen Loheac. 
But a few months ago, when Loheac shuffled before 
the parole board seeking compassionate release, 
after serving nearly 19 years behind bars on a 
conspiracy-to-murder conviction, the board told 
her she would be a risk to public safety if she were freed.

On Jan. 5, Loheac, the oldest female inmate in 
California's prison system, died of pneumonia in 
a hospital near the Valley State Prison for Women 
in Chowchilla, where she had been incarcerated. 
She was shackled at her waist and ankles, two guards at her bedside.

Loheac, known for her sharp tongue and wit, has 
become the poster person for the widespread 
practice in California's prisons of inhumanely 
incarcerating the elderly, some of whose bodies 
are so withered that even simple daily chores become overwhelming.

"It's a terrible injustice, what's going on in 
those prisons," said Gloria Killian, a former 
inmate of the California Institution for Women 
(CIW) in Corona, and now a fierce prisoners' 
rights advocate. "There's nothing worse than being sick and being in prison.

"These people are not a threat to society. They 
couldn't hurt a fly if they wanted to. And 
besides, it's so expensive to keep them incarcerated."

Inmates over age 55 cost taxpayers two to three 
times the cost of younger prisoners, who average 
$35,000 a year. Dee Mariano, 59, said that in the 
11 years she spent in California prisons, the 
state spent about $70,000 a year on medications 
and treatment for her chronic lung disease and 
degenerative bone disease. Now, it costs her only 
$17,000, with the state and federal governments sharing the cost.

"They were spending about $250,000 a year on 
Helen, if you include the cost of two prison 
guards who would always accompany her when she 
went to the hospital for dialysis about three 
times a week," said Killian, who is about to 
launch the Helen Loheac Memorial Release Project 
to help elderly women prisoners live and die in dignity.

Prisoners' rights groups say there is a 
reluctance on the part of the State Board of 
Prison Terms to release prisoners when they are 
due for parole, in clear violation of the California Penal Code.

"The board generally finds no more than 4 percent 
of the prisoners suitable for parole," said 
Marisa Gonzales, a staff attorney at the San 
Francisco-based non-profit, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC).

The few who get the nod from the board then must 
be approved for parole by Gov. Arnold 
Schwarzenegger, who, they say, wants to please 
victims' rights groups and be viewed as tough on crime.

"The board gives us a release date, and the 
governor takes it away," said Jane Benson, 60, a 
prisoner of 22 years at CIW, who succeeded in 
persuading the parole board to free her the 
fourth time she came up for parole. But she said 
her luck ran out when her papers reached the governor's desk.

Crossroads executive director Sister Terry Dodge 
believes that denying older women parole after 
they've done their time "is just political.

"They mature out of criminal behavior," she said.

Indeed, federal studies show that the recidivism 
rate for prisoners over 55 is between 2 and 4 
percent, according to Heidi Strupp, an advocacy coordinator with LSPC.

Meanwhile, the graying of the prison population 
mirrors that of the general population. With 
tougher sentencing laws, it is projected that by 
2030 there will be 33,000 geriatric prisoners in 
California alone, costing the state at least a $1 
billion a year. There are currently 532 women 55 
and over in the state's three prisons – CIF, 
Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) and Central 
California Women's Facility (CCWF).

Yet, "those prisons aren't geared to the needs 
and vulnerabilities of older people," said Strupp.

Two years ago, Strupp contributed to a study of 
older prisoners in California. The study, 
released by the San Francisco Veterans 
Administration Medical Center, found that older 
women were less healthy than the general 
population, reporting higher rates of 
hypertension, arthritis, asthma and other lung diseases.

Despite a 1976 Supreme Court ruling that 
established that inmates have a constitutional 
right to health care, they don't always have ready access to it.

A federal judge in 2006 appointed a receiver to 
oversee California's prison health care system, 
after finding that an average of one inmate a 
week was dying of neglect or malpractice.

Dee Mariano, who did time in all three California 
women's prisons before she was released in 2004, 
said she used to see her fellow prisoners with 
cancer and hepatitis treated with Tylenol and 
Motrin. "I saw one woman with throat cancer, who 
kept getting denied parole, fall into her own blood and die," Mariano said.

"I saw another woman get down to her knees and 
beg for morphine," she said. "It was disgusting. 
When you're in prison, all you want is to be able to die with dignity."

On a recent evening at the CIW in Corona, some 50 
or so "golden girls" -- what the incarcerated 
over 55 call themselves here -- gathered in a 
spacious hall for their monthly two-hour meeting, 
under the watchful eyes of two prison guards. 
Corona has a total of 137 inmates who are over 55.

"Any time you can get a support group like this, 
that is a coping mechanism in and of itself," 
said CIW's chief psychologist Dr. Cristal 
Bernous. The unique program is a collaborative 
effort between inmates and the administration, 
according to Robert Patterson, the prison's public information officer.

Most wore drab, light gray prison regulation 
sweatsuits. Many were lifers, convicted of crimes 
ranging from murder to drug-related offenses to 
kidnapping for ransom. Some had landed in prison 
for non-violent crimes under the three strikes law.

Some had heart disease; others suffered from 
osteoporosis, arthritis or diabetes. Many had 
asthma and other lung diseases. Many said they 
were depressed, a common enough health problem for those behind bars.

Prison officials acknowledge that inmates age 
faster than the general population primarily 
because of stress, but also because of poor 
medical care while incarcerated and even before 
they ended up in prison, as well as prior drug use.

"The older you get, the more stressful it is," 
said Golden Girl Glenda Crosley, 65, who's been 
incarcerated for 21 years. "Most of us have high 
blood pressure. The system spends a lot on 
medications to control it, but don't do anything to prevent it."

Chairwoman Donna Jelnic, 64, trim, her auburn 
shoulder-length hair neatly coiffed and her eyes 
lined with mascara, reminded them about the 
upcoming elections for board positions. She gave 
them an update on the status of the lawsuit 
against Prop. 9, a ballot initiative approved by 
voters last November that will expand the legal 
rights of crime victims at the expense, prisoner 
advocates say, of many of the rights of prisoners 
and parolees. She also urged the women to attend 
an upcoming writ writing workshop that Warden Dawn S. Davison had arranged.

As prisons go, CIW is one of the better run 
prison facilities in California, former and 
current inmates assert. Thanks to some 
compassionate policies Davison has introduced 
since she took over four years ago, inmates over 
55 can opt for a lower bunk in their cell, get 
two blankets and two pillows instead of the 
customary one, and endure shorter waits on the 
cafeteria and "pill" lines. Every cell has only 
two bunks, unlike the CCWF, which has eight bunks to a cell.

"Dawn sees rehabilitation possibilities, unlike 
officials at the other two facilities," Sister 
Dodge said. "But I am not saying CIW is a piece of cake. It's still a prison."

At the much newer CCWF, a facility built to house 
4,000, there are currently 8,000 inmates, so some 
cells have triple bunks, said Mariano, who was 
transferred there because of her extensive 
medical problems. CCWF is the only facility with a medical unit.

"I've seen 70- and 80-year-old women with 
arthritis trying to crawl up to the upper bunks," she said.

Killian, who founded Action Committee for Women 
in Prison shortly after she was exonerated in 
2003, said, "Prisoners who come back from surgery 
are made to go up to the upper bunks."

As California's elderly prison population 
burgeons, calls for prison reform are growing 
louder. State Sen. Gloria Romero, former chair of 
the Senate Public Safety Committee, believes that 
prison officials should do a risk assessment and 
release the least risky prisoners.

Dodge and other activists heartily agree. Loheac, 
they say, was one of those who should have come out long ago.

"She was a tiny old woman who just wanted to be released," said Killian.



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