These seniors face the same mental and physical health care needs as people on the outside, experts say, but they’re growing old in a system already strained by the sheer numbers of prisoners, to say nothing of the pressure created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their plight is the focus of Aging Behind Prison Walls: Studies in Trauma and Resilience (Columbia University Press, 2020), a new book co-authored by Professor of Social Work Tina Maschi, Ph.D., and Keith Morgen, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Centenary University.

From Isolation to Solitude

Maschi noted that although the book focuses on aging in prison, it is also a story of humanity. Its data-driven analysis—both quantitative and qualitative—reveals that the men and women behind bars have mustered a resilience that could teach those of us on the outside a thing or two, said Maschi, particularly when most Americans are coping with pandemic isolation.

“Now we’re all in a metaphorical prison, so why don’t we ask the wisdom keepers in prison, what does it mean to take social isolation and view it as solitude?” asked Maschi.

Maschi said the coping strategies used by incarcerated elders include finding meaning in their lives from before, during, and after imprisonment. But society undervalues incarcerated people, so their wealth of knowledge falls mostly on deaf ears. Over the years, Maschi said, she’s come to appreciate older incarcerated people for their unique and informed perspectives.

“One of the elders once said to me, ‘You may have a Ph.D., but I have a direct line to the wisdom only others can read about in your research,’ and I realized he was right,” said Maschi.

Trauma Begets Trauma

Over the course of 10 years, Maschi interviewed 677 incarcerated people for the Hartford Prison Study under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey Department of Corrections. The research produced multiple journal articles, including a study of some frequently overlooked communities, such as LGBT incarcerated elders. But perhaps her most significant finding was that 70% of the participants experienced three or more traumatic experiences in their lives, including physical and sexual abuse. The ill effects from these experiences linger for many years later, she said. And yet, her research also found that older incarcerated adults who had spent years working through the trauma lived healthier lives into their senior years. They, in turn, passed on the knowledge to younger men and women in prison, of which many were able to make positive changes in their lives.

One young man she calls Joseph credits a prison elder with helping him turn his life around. Joseph had been abused by his parents and a coach. With the help of an elder he was able to gain insight into “what happened to me and what I had to do to get ahold of the monster in control of me,” he tells her in the book. Before that he experienced “a world locked away from all caring feelings and [he]put on a tough exterior.”

Based on the data, Maschi said, “If we give them love instead of suppressing love we know that people have better results.”

Prison as a Metaphor

Maschi worked in prisons for 15 years before finding her way to the older adults there. Initially, she researched young prisoners and wanted to understand trauma in their past that paved the way to incarceration. But she also wanted to examine outcomes of being incarcerated over several years, which led her to the older population. In time, she said, she has come to view America’s mass incarceration crisis as analogous to society’s greatest ills.

“The prisons are a metaphor, these are stories of humanity and we need to understand how we got to this point because if don’t want to look at how we got here, we’ll never get out of it,” she said. “And if we don’t do something, we’ll be looking at thousands of people dying, including many chained to beds, and that problem is only going to get bigger and bigger.”

Maschi said that most Americans’ personal and collective beliefs don’t align with the brutality of mass incarceration. She said much of the problem springs from a “fear-based mentality” fostered by the media that distracts people from focusing on the positives that incarcerated people may have to offer.

Caring Justice

Maschi and Morgen offer concrete proposals—at the community and national policy levels—to address the pressing issues of incarcerated elders. The authors document multiple examples of compassionate programs and interventions that incorporate what they refer to as “caring justice” principles. The approach provides a formalized framework for professionals that integrates “caring” by emphasizing equality, compassion, and authenticity, and “justice” by emphasizing truth, integrity, balance, and ethics. can help everyone examine “how we value, treat, and care for each other.” But the principles are specifically intended to help marginalized individuals and groups, like those with a criminal past, heal and grow. In essence, their recommendations spring from the care that incarcerated elders are already providing in an informal way to younger imprisoned adults

“Caring justice is not coming, it is already here. If you open your eyes you will see it.  While the rational view is respected, it should be tempered by the heart and expressed through compassion,” she said.  “There’s science behind this; we know from our other research that oppression and hatred often are associated with health and justice disparities. In comparison, a compassionate and authentic approach is most often associated with better health, well-being, and an increased sense of belonging.”

Caring justice is a “heart and head integration” method that Maschi says is best expressed in the spiritual creative writing of an incarcerated older adult known as Mr. J’s Unchained Mind, who is briefly mentioned in the book. Maschi writes that Mr. J’s Unchained Mind enables him to be fully aware of his inner landscape and his relationship to the world.  In one paragraph introducing a poem by Mr. J, the authors reference 15 empirical studies that support the importance of “biopsychosocial spiritual medicine” to promote resilience, transcendence, and well-being. That is to say, Mr. J’s faith. He writes:

I was once a Fool but now I’m Wise!
I was once Blind but now I See!
I was once Deaf but now I Hear!
I was once Ignorant but now I use Intelligence!
YOU have your Ph.D., but I have Knowledge and Inspiration that comes from a Higher Power, the one and only True GOD!
A Mind is a terrible thing to waste, so is the Soul!

Heyman is a well-known expert on intergenerational social work—something that she gets to practice in her own home, especially now. While granting a phone interview with Fordham News, she sat at a table cutting shapes out of paper with her grandchildren while her mother-in-law futilely tried to disengage a face-to-face video chat.

“My mother-in-law, who’s 94, tried to connect with us, but now she can’t figure out how to turn it off,” she said with a laugh. “I’m sitting here with three generations trying to help while making triangles and rectangles.”

Heyman noted that the phone situation with her mother-in-law, while amusing, is also a graphic example of the challenges sequestered older adults face during the COVID-19 restrictions. ­­­While much of America engages on social media and in video chats, many older adults do not know how to use the technology. Most are not just being cut off from the population at large, but from their family and friends as well.

“We talk about all our students and everybody going online, but for many older adults, they’re not online or able to connect,” said Heyman.

She said that some social workers who are used to seeing their clients at the senior centers for lunch and social activities are reaching out to them with phone calls to check in on their mental and physical health.

Social worker Colette Phipps spearheads one such effort in Westchester. After 10 years as an adjunct lecturer teaching human rights and social justice courses in the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) at Fordham’s Westchester campus, Phipps was teaching “Social Work Practice with Communities and Organizations” this semester when the pandemic broke out in her near her home in New Rochelle. She also works with seniors through Westchester’s TIPS program (the Telehealth Intervention Programs for Seniors), part of Westchester County Livable Communities/Age-Friendly Initiative, of which she is the executive director. She said the closing of community programs has been tragic for seniors.

“I was talking to a site director last week who said to me, one of the seniors came in when they knew that the site was going to close and said, ‘Oh, you don’t have to worry about feeding me a hot meal. I’ll just bring a whole sandwich. I just want to be here,’” recalled Phipps.

Up until the pandemic, the TIPS program sent trained student technicians, often GSS students, to take seniors’ vitals at community centers, nutrition sites, housing authorities, and independent living facilities for seniors. Referred to as social support associates, the students were trained to transmit the health care data to telehealth nurses who review it remotely, saving the county money by reducing unnecessary hospital and doctor visits. The program also familiarized seniors with county services and doctor referrals when necessary.

Phipps said the seniors adored the students and would happily go to get the routine procedure done in order to interact with the young people. With physical encounters halted, Phipps organized TIPS in Touch two weeks ago. The intergenerational program allows the same students to call and check in on the seniors, who now long to hear a familiar voice.

“Can you imagine when Daria calls and says, ‘Hi Ms. Jones, it’s me, Daria. How you doing?’ They’re gonna be thrilled!” Phipps said while planning the new intervention.

She said that while the students can no longer gather the vital signs data, they can get other important information by asking a series of questions.

“The trusty old phone is old school, but it works,” said Phipps.

As students began making the calls from their homes over the past week and a half, Phipps deemed the program a success. She said they ask key questions, including: Have you fallen? Have your medications changed? Are you taking them on time? How are you feeling? If the social worker determines there is a problem they will connect the senior with any number of services available to them within the county, from food delivery to emergency care.

Both Phipps and Heyman said there are lessons that all caregivers and families can take away from the skills social workers use in reaching out to their clients by phone. Here are a few tips:

Call! 

Phipps: “I think more than anything, we can simply talk to a person who is home alone because they feel so socially isolated.”

Be Kind

Phipps: “Let them know you miss them. You can say ‘Mary, I really miss you. I can’t wait to see you again. But this is what we’re going to do to keep as connected as possible.'”

Be Real

Phipps: “Acknowledge the obvious and simply say, ‘This really something. It’s really changed our lives around.’ You don’t want to talk with the older adult like you are above them or that you’re not experiencing some of the same things they’re experiencing.”

Be Blunt

Phipps: “You want to have a lilt to your voice, but you don’t want to invalidate how they’re feeling or how you’re feeling. It’s OK to say, ‘This really sucks!'”

Be Practical

Heyman: “Talk about any type of daily activities. Make sure they’re not having any further impairments, that they’re getting their nutrition, their meals. If not, in New York City there’s a lot of services through 3-1-1, and in Westchester, 2-1-1 is providing a lot of outreach as well.”

Listen

Phipps: “I can sort of tell just by the tone of voice, even though I can’t see the face, what kind of affect they have. I can tell if they are down. I like to be very careful about talking about being depressed. It is something many older adults are not interested in revealing. You might say, ‘Wow, your voice is not the same today, Agnes. What’s going on?’ Then listen to what they have to say.”

Finally, Heyman advised caretakers and social workers to care for themselves.

“When they’re on the frontline, they really need to take a deep breath and realize they’re doing the hero work just like our physicians, our nurses, and our caregivers,” said Heyman. “Day in and day out, they’re the ones really making the difference in the lives of the individuals and their families.”

Phipps also stressed self-care.

“You’ve got to take a little time off. You really do. You have to have some time for yourself because the stories that you hear are very much heartbreaking,” said Phipps. “You have to refresh. It may be that you just sit down and meditate for a bit or do a little exercise or read a book. You know, I tell my students that we are like Sisyphus pushing that rock up the hill, but we have to find joy in doing it.”

Jared McNeill, FCLC ’08, knows how important it is for actors to maintain their passion for theater. “A lot of people talk about it as a flame burning in your heart. I always think it’s not a big fire; it’s a tiny candlelight. And there’s a lot of wind out there! You’ve got to know where it’s coming from.”

McNeill started out working small jobs in the New York theater scene. He said the collaborative nature of Fordham’s program, where performance-track students are required to learn design and production skills (and vice versa), helped him get noticed. Now he’s touring the world with Tony- and Emmy award-winning director Peter Brook’s company and spending much of his time in Paris. It’s a path his agent recommended against.

“They’re there to assist you on your road,” McNeill said of his experience with agents, “but they’re not there to tell you how to live your life or do your career.” It was actually Matthew Maguire, director of the Fordham Theatre program, who helped McNeill think through the decision that has ultimately shaped his career.

The panelists, whose conversation was driven entirely by student questions, gave advice about graduate school, discussed working in theater versus television, and shared honest and sometimes-humorous stories about the audition process and the difficulties women and minorities often face in the industry.

Betty Gilpin, FCLC ’08, an actress who had a recurring role on Nurse Jackie with Edie Falco and will soon be seen on CBS’s Elementary, told students how her days at Fordham motivate her even when things get tough. “Especially as a woman, it’s totally different. You’re going to be told things like, ‘Don’t make that weird face when you cry,’ or, ‘Great, just wear more makeup next time,’” she said. “But the Fordham is in you, and that’s important.”

“What you’ve built here is invaluable,” Gilpin said, referring to the theatrical training she received and the bonds she formed at Fordham. “You’ve built this ocean of weird to draw on, to love from, that not everybody has.”

Amirah Vann, FCLC ’02, who also started her career acting in small shows on stage in New York City before landing the part of Ernestine on Underground, WGN America’s new show about the Underground Railroad, stressed that it’s important to “take the work when it comes” and “build relationships,” but to also create your own path. “The clearer your vision of what kind of actor you want to be, what things are important to you, the more [your agent and casting directors] will be on board,” she said.

She also advised students to be assertive on auditions, and to remember that the casting directors don’t always know what they’re looking for. When you’re given a part to read for, she explained, “you’re not trying to solve some problem you’re presented. You know this character. You come in with choices and opinions.”

It’s a little different for Isabelle Simone, FCLC ’12, who has worked as a costume assistant, often with renowned and prolific designer Ann Roth, on Broadway shows like Porgy and Bess, Book of Mormon, and On Your Feet. “I’m creating someone else’s vision,” explained Simone, who emphasized the social nature of the theater business.

“Every job I’ve gotten has been a direct result of the first internship I got from Becky [Bodurtha, the Fordham costume shop supervisor],” she said. It’s just as much about being easy to work with as it is about being talented. “If you’re good, the word gets out. Much of it is about being nice and being a good person.”

John Benjamin Hickey, FCLC ’85, who won a Tony Award for his role in The Normal Heart and an Emmy nomination for his starring role on Showtime’s The Big C, agreed. “That behavior does not go unrewarded,” he said.

Hickey also urged seniors not to be discouraged if they don’t get an agent through the Senior Showcase.

“It certainly won’t be the last time somebody says no,” he said. “It’s just the very beginning of your career. Keep trying to learn. Every hard thing teaches you. You just have to keep trying to figure out new ways to keep at it.”

The Senior Showcase is open only to industry professionals, such as agents and managers. But you don’t have to be an industry pro to enjoy this year’s senior class reel below!