By Vincent Lim
Aileen Hongo, MSW ’13, MAG ’07, first met award-winning commercial and art photographer Ron Levine through his photographs – striking images of aging prisoners.
“This a voiceless population,” said Hongo, a life skills instructor at Five Keys Charter School and a research fellow at the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging.
Hongo emailed Levine asking for permission to use his photos for her paper for a class taught by Anne Katz, a clinical professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and an affiliated faculty member of the USC Roybal Institute on Aging.
He enthusiastically agreed.
Ever since, Hongo and Katz have kept in touch with Levine and given presentations with him at conferences across the United States on criminal justice issues related to older incarcerated individuals.
“We present the research information,” Hongo said. “His photos help bring the concepts that we want to convey to life.”
Important Stories to Tell
Levine’s exhibit of geriatric inmates titled “Prisoners of Age” has received international acclaim and was recently on display at the school’s Social Work Center. The exhibition was organized by Katz and Clinical Associate Professor Michal Sela-Amit.
“The stories of these people are so important,” Levine said at a presentation of his work at the school. “Nobody knows about these elderly. Nobody realizes that they’re in prison.”
Levine’s exhibit has taken him around the world to a myriad of venues, including The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and former prisons such as the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco.