Juanita Fitzgerald spent her 94th birthday in a prison cell.
The elderly woman just forgot to pay her care home, Franklin House, a $161 bill and here’s how this awful story went down.
Juanita Fitzgerald lived in Franklin House, a senior care home in Florida because she needed advanced support due to the health conditions she lived with, but she believes that the home wanted her out.
For years, Juanita Fitzgerald believes that the home had been trying to force her out because of the cost of her care, and then one day, she forgot to pay, and the home decided to kick her out.
She offered to pay, but her payment was refused. Instead, they demanded that she leave, but it was her home, it was where she had all her friends and she had nowhere else to go, so she refused to leave.
Franklin House called the police, who sided entirely with the home, and Juanita Fitzgerald was arrested for trespassing and the police forcibly took the elderly woman away and she was left bruised and in tears.
She was imprisoned, and for many days, Juanita Fitzgerald was kept in the Lake County Correctional facility, but other prisoners were horrified by this treatment, several others weren’t shocked at all.
Juanita Fitzgerald’s case is an illustration of what happens when a system cares more about money than human life.
Fortuitously for Juanita Fitzgerald, somebody was able to bail her out of prison and when the matter reached the attorney’s office, her charges were thrown out, but sadly, there’s no undoing the damage already done.
This was so wrong, and shame on the police and the care home for treating a senior citizen like this. This was uncalled for, and hopefully, nobody treats their mother or family like this.
And this is meant to be the Christian way – this should never have happened.
Welcome to America, the land of the free and home of the brave – I don’t think so.
Mind you, in jail she would have got three meals a day, a warm place to sleep and free medical care – sounds better than the place that kicked her out, which says a lot for America’s care system that has you locked up in a cell with bars and her arms were all battered and bruised, and where were social services when they were needed?
Of course, we don’t know the whole story, but whatever it is, as long as she didn’t shoot or kill anyone, putting her in prison at that age just doesn’t make any sense, and why did the care home not give her warning?
Probably because the office is being managed by imbeciles who have no idea that people in their 90’s forget quickly and she needs a Power of Attorney because many elderly people would not remember to do all the bills and shame on those who work there without using their own brains.
With these elderly people, there’s often confusion and perhaps even some dementia in play and the staff should be aware of this and have contact with a family member or even social services.
Elderly people need an advocate and we will soon be in this situation ourselves and those people should think about what they’re doing before they do it, but then I guess this is our future.
No one cares when you’re elderly and handcuffing and leg restraints are overkill because this is what we’ve come to as human beings.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 