April 23, 2026
By Jane Dorotik Special to The Sacramento Bee
California has created tools for prison release — including the elderly parole program in 2014. So why are so many elders still locked up in women’s prisons? I spent 20 years of my older age incarcerated in prison. I’m now 79 years old, and spend the majority of my time advocating for the women I left behind: a woman with dementia who can’t find her way back to her room; a woman who struggles to balance her oxygen tank on her walker to execute her mandated job assignment; and a 94-year old who is forced to attend school, working toward a high school diploma she will never use.
Before I went to prison on a wrongful conviction, I was a health care professional in community mental health administration. While incarcerated, I helped my peers navigate a medical system that denies them basic health care and humanity. With the help of organizations like the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, I spent decades fighting for better conditions and exposed scandals like forced sterilizations, staff sexual abuse and deadly medical neglect.
Read more from Jane Dorotik at the Sacramento Bee here
