NEWSSENIOR POVERTY

Is prison meant to punish and demoralize or teach and rehabilitate? To look at the U.S. prison system, you might conclude that our aim is the former. Too bad the latter is a more effective approach, less damaging to individuals and their families over time — including victims and their families. The U.S. prison even causes inmates to experience significant wage decreases after they get out of jail. Lack of rehabilitation, less money ... doesn't seem like a recipe for success.

With close elections all over the country, the debate about the economic upside of early release has been raging in battleground areas. Florida has the nation's third largest prison system, and by 2030, one third of the Florida prison population will be over 50.

Accordingly, politicians in the Sunshine State are arguing about whether non-violent elderly prisoners should be up for early release. In a frighteningly bad economy, the idea is simple. Implementing an early release program saves the state millions of dollars, and also frees non-violent offenders who have suffered unusually harsh sentences. In particular, aging female prisoners — who were many times acting in self-defense against an abuser — pose no threat to society. Fifteen percent of Florida's prison population is already elderly, and that group accounts for one-third of the inmates expected to die behind bars.

Florida's Senate Bill 484 (and companion House Bill 1515) would create the Elderly Rehabilitated Inmate Program, which would allow inmates who have served over 25 years to be eligible to petition for early parole. Those released would be required to perform an additional ten hours of community service for every year served and would be electronically monitored for at least the first year after their release.

We know that the number of children living with their grandparents has jumped in recent years — to an estimated one in 10 kids — so it follows that grandma's finances have been strained by the addition of so much peanut butter and jelly to the shopping list.

A new fact sheet (pdf) from Generations United, a non-profit focused on improving the lives of children and older people, recognizes that the success of the seven million or so American children living in households headed by grandparents hinges upon the economic security of Grams and Gramps. This security comes in large part from Social Security, which provided seniors with an average of 40 percent of their total income.

The poverty rate among "grandfamilies" is currently 22 percent (compared to 20.7 percent for all children and 9.7 percent for seniors). Without Social Security benefits, Generations United estimates that number would be 59 percent or more. So Social Security (in all its incarnations: Survivor's Benefits, Supplemental Security Income, etc.) is making all the difference between whether people are living in poverty or not.

Want some anecdotal evidence as well? Take the story of Carolyn Perkins and her 13-year-old grandson Ezekiel, who live in West Brook, Maine. Perkins, a widow, took Ezekiel in when he was just three months old, after his mother died. His father has spent most of Ezekiel's life in prison. Health problems make it impossible for Perkins to work. Without Social Security and disability payments, she says she'd be living out of her car. Ezekiel would probably be put in foster care.

Baby Boomers go bust?

Earlier this month, Josie Raymond wrote about Boomers who are too broke to retire. That's of course only true of folks who actually have jobs, ones to which some desperately cling, at any cost.

This week, Raymond also noted that some out-of-work adults are visiting college job fairs, so desperate for jobs that they'll rub elbows (or maybe more like exchange elbow jabs) with competitive young grads. I suspect middle-aged workers who have been unemployed for long enough figure they have nothing to lose. From the way things have been looking, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

In a similar vein, the New York Times reported this week that older workers — more middle-aged that senior — are starting to despair that they'll simply never work again. According to the Labor Department, more than 2.2 million of the 14.9 million currently unemployed are 55 or older. Almost half have been unemployed for a record-breaking six months or longer.

Even more than the fear of forced early retirement or working well past retirement just to fund their eventual departure from a mandatory 9-5, many are terrified that they'll be completely dependent on the government for healthcare, shelter and food. Some feel that after several years of unemployment with no job prospects in sight, they'll just end up on the streets.

As Poverty in America's "Geezer Gal," [Ed. note: I never said that!] I volunteered to write perhaps one of the hardest posts of my blogging career — a look at poverty among the elderly.

I'm known for staring into the belly of the beast, but perhaps this is going too far. With fresh-off-the-presses poverty statistics pointing to a climbing poverty rate (now at 14.3 percent), my non-profit do-gooder self is way too close to the edge. But I'm not alone. Seniors, unless they're quite wealthy — say $1 mil+ in secure (whatever that is?!) investments — better pull out the sleeping bags from the basement or buy a little RV, like I did. Tragically, but undeniably, poverty's path easily leads to homelessness, especially for seniors with high risk factors: inadequate income/savings/retirement, health issues, strained family ties, unaffordable housing, not to mention the typical senior financial issues (pdf).

A couple weeks ago, while volunteering at the DuPage PADS shelter, I struck up a conversation with a woman standing forlornly by herself. "Addie," just a few months younger than my recently-reached 60, was annoyed. I asked why. "They're gonna make me leave tonight," she growled. As a former shelter director, I was puzzled since I hadn't seen her cause any problems.

"They say they have no room," she sneered, looking disbelievingly at vacant places in the hallway previously used as an overflow women's sleeping area. She sat down to eat, knowing that the pre-fall temperature drop would soon chill her bones. I know, as she does, that if you are homeless and can't stay at this shelter, part of a rotating cycle of shelter/worship places, then you're SOL.

Later I saw Addie standing in the hallway. "I'm just staying here as long as I can," she replied. "I'll be OK, but I'm worried about 'Jane,' because they're going to make her leave too, I think." WHAT? Jane, Addie told me, is 75.

Next year the first of the Baby Boomers will turn 65. In total, 36 million Americans will hit 65 over the next decade, plus another 45 million in the following decade. Some of them won't be retiring for quite some time, though, if they can help it. New estimates say that three in five Boomers are financially unprepared for retirement.

It appears they haven't saved enough ... and their homes have lost value ... and continuing to work is difficult in a recession-ravaged job market flooded with recent grads ... and so on. We're not even mentioning the slightly-valid question of whether Social Security will continue to provide at the same levels, which currently account for about 40 percent of senior income. So much for the Golden Years.

The Wall Street Journal is more worried about the effect of all this on the economy than on the seniors, since their penny-pinching days in retirement will mean considerably less spending — about 12 percent less — from a large portion of the population. For now, let's focus on the human beings at risk. There's been talk of raising the retirement age to help offset the cost of government entitlement programs. Heck, senior citizens already outnumber teenagers in the workforce for the first time, but not because they want to or because they're looking out for the Social Security trust fund.

Women outnumber men in the workplace.

Women are the primary decision makers when it comes to most household spending.

And, according to a study released by Care One Debt Relief Services this week, women also seek help managing, reorganizing and paying off debt nearly twice as often as men. (CareOne Debt Relief Services is a Maryland-based credit management company helps people develop plans to pay off and in some cases negotiate debt payoff amounts. The company was one of just a few so called debt relief services that supported the Federal Trade Commission's July decision to ban upfront and undisclosed fees for debt management services.)

The really big news most people took from Care One's study is that the recession has seriously increased the amount of debt many women are carrying and drastically changed which women have to seek help reorganizing and ultimately paying off their debt. Women with incomes above $50,000 appear to be in bigger financial trouble than ever before. In fact, 45 percent of women seeking help with debt earn more than $50,000 a year.

But inside Care One's new report, is another story that all too often goes untold.

As if the recession weren't painful enough for young people, adults and the elderly across the country, thousands of seniors and people with disabilities are about to be dealt another bad hand. In order to handle budget shortfalls, home care has been slashed from several state budgets in the next year. A number of states, including Florida, Kansas and Arizona, will start dropping coverage for thousands of people over the next year. Other states like Illinois are capping programs like Meals on Wheels because the demand is simply too great.

These latest changes follow last year's cuts in states like California, which shuttered programs like Alzheimer's day care centers. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 25 states have had to curtail or cease funding vital programs since the recession began.

Home care programs include all sorts of domestic services, everything from meal delivery to help with shopping,  housekeeping assistance to medical aid. Many older people, as well as many folks with disabilities or short term illnesses, rely on home help to manage with the most basic tasks. Even people who don't live alone often need extra help, as in the case of aging spouses who can't fully care for one another. It's certainly true of my grandparents; while they still live together at home, Gram requires a lot of extra care due to lifelong medical issues. Three times a week right now, a physical therapist comes to help work on her legs, which have given her trouble since birth. If she didn't receive some form of Medicaid or Medicare, she wouldn't be able to afford care that has so far prevented her from using a wheelchair at all times. I'm biased — she's my Gram, after all — but would you think of denying such basic care to anyone, your grandma or not?

If you follow this blog, it's probably not news to you that youth unemployment rates are astronomical right now, which is bad news for teenagers and young adults, since poor young people who cannot find work face problems later in life such as low employability, lower earnings and even a decreased likelihood of getting married.

But as it turns out, this isn't The Summer of Youth Unemployment, or at least not the only one. In reality, the days of decent teen employment rates were numbered as far back as two years ago, when for the first time since the Labor Department began collecting data in 1948 the number of employed senior citizens began outnumbering the number of employed teens. This past fall, seniors also overtook teenagers in the workforce as a whole ("the workforce" meaning people who either have jobs or are actively looking for jobs).

As the New York Times Economix blog lays out, the equation at the heart of this matter is: "More older people needing work + more younger people giving up on work = grandparents surpassing grandchildren in the labor force."

To elaborate on that first point, Baby Boomers are getting older, and therefore the overall pool of older people who continue to work after age 65 is growing. That would be true even if the economy wasn't in the toilet, but with the recession pummeling workers' pensions, Americans are having to work longer than they ever have before because they simply can't afford to retire.

Her clapboard house, nestled in the side of a hill, is the size of some mansion bathrooms. Soon to be 86, "Beatrice" has lived here all her life. Never married and her family all gone, she manages to survive on, well, kindness. She gives it and others share it. Foreign concept, I know.

With rightful attention directed at challenging billionaires to share their wealth, some of whom need to be pried from their money with a crowbar, I can't help but compare the two opposite ends of the spectrum — the Beatrices of the world and the "greedy gopher guts," the ultimate insult us Nilan kids would mutter about some of my dad's clients who wouldn't toss quarters in the pool for us to retrieve (and keep!).

My brush with Beatrice's generosity came at the peak of berry season. Her family property, adjacent to my sister and brother-in-law's, happens to contain a berry patch teeming with luscious fruit, soon to be spoiled. Getting Beatrice's call for "help," my sister and I grabbed pails, sprayed citronella on our limbs, and plunged into heaven. Pick, eat, save. A good system.

Listening to Beatrice talk as she picked about how she's only the steward of this land was the whipped cream on the berries. If more people with more would be generous, we would live in a different world.

Amazingly, this spunky woman not only shares with neighbors, but also volunteers at the local homeless shelter. She was lamenting the increase of problems at the shelter with people — volunteers as well as clients and community members — taking more than their share of the donated food and clothing, then selling it at garage sales. It's a tale that I'm painfully familiar with from my shelter days: the reality of underpaid staff, under-supervised facilities, need and greed.

Social Security, it seems, is as broke as many of the people who need it. A report from the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees issued last year projected that Social Security as we know it will be gone in 2037 if reforms are not put in place. "Projected long run program costs are not sustainable under current program parameters," the report said. Assets are expected to be continually depleted as Baby Boomers start collecting until reserves dry up in 2037 and we switch to paying partial benefits thanks only to tax income. The need for reform is clear.

Of course, there are differing opinions on how to fix Social Security. President George W. Bush's plan to privatize wasn't the answer. Neither, apparently, is the call from many progressives (and Defense Secretary Robert Gates) to cut the military budget dramatically and redirect those funds to entitlement programs. Now the tanned-one, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), has an idea: raise the retirement age to 70. It's a funny proposal coming from someone who is called "lazy" even by fellow Republicans.

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in which he criticized financial reform, Boehner said he'd like to see the retirement age raised to 70, but conceded that he'd give 20 years notice, so no one near retirement now would be affected. He also said he'd like to limit payouts to people who have a need. "We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," Boehner said. "If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke?"