The Providence Journal

In 2017–2018, Providence lived up to its name. Spurred by a Columbia University business student, journalist and professor Tracy Breton brought together Brown University undergraduates and recent alums to oversee a year-long investigation resulting in a nine-part series on elder abuse for TheProvidence Journal. In a post-rollout interview with Liz Seegert of the Association of Health Care Journalists, Breton chronicles (October 12, 2018):

“I got a phone call last April, 2017, from Ben Eisler, an investigative reporter who at the time was a graduate student at Columbia University Business School. He asked me if I would do a pilot series for this nonprofit he was starting that would pair top journalism students with experienced reporters who were also professors. He thought it would be a great way to fill the gap in local investigative reporting. He left it up to me to decide the topic.”

Seegert reports that Breton “finally got the opportunity to report out the elder abuse series she’s wanted to do for a decade.” Fast forward: as reported in Elder Abuse in RI: Sitting down with the journalist, “A year-long investigation by a team of Brown University students found that 87 percent of those charged with elder-abuse offenses in R.I. between 2000 and 2017 did not go to prison for those crimes, leaving their elderly victims vulnerable to repeated attacks.” (August 24, 2018)

Before Eisler presented this opportunity, Breton had traveled a long road with many milestones along the way. In high school, Breton provided volunteer services in a nursing home — let’s call this early service learning(Augusti and Freshman, 2016). As an investigative and legal affairs reporter at The Providence Journal for four decades, Breton was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1994 for a series of stories that disclosed pervasive corruption in Rhode Island’s court system. In 2006–2007 Breton gained a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, “[to] examine the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of elderly people with mental health issues.” Since 1997 Breton has been a professor teaching public-interest journalism classes in the Department of English Nonfiction Writing Program at Brown University.

Breton’s student (read: journalist) team included: Jack Brook, Andi Corbain, Rebecca Ellis, Katrina Northrop, and Asher Woodbury; they were majoring in history, public policy, urban studies, international development studies, and computer science, respectively. (August 25, 2018)

While ageism is our greatest impediment to elder justice, ageism doesn’t just enter life late—it can trip adults up at the starting gate. “Seniors” may be 18, 21, and 71. Here, the students’ youthfulness might have made it more difficult for them to get sources to talk to them. Breton’s solution was to apply an ageless approach: concern and capacity building, with respect and rigor. In response to Seegert’s question, “Did the police and prosecutors take the students seriously?” Breton replies:

“I told them they were real reporters and should demand and push for information they were entitled to. Spending all that time with the court records gave them the data to sit there and ask why things happened the way they did.”

The journalists’ August 2018 series was the result of Breton’s august approach — here, her respectful and rigorous resolve. The front-page, above-the-fold, nine-part series and companion stories included:

• Part 1: Suffering in the shadows by Jack Brook, Rebecca Ellis, Katrina Northrop and Asher Woodbury (August 24)

• Journalists behind the elder-abuse series (August 25)

• Part 2: Barriers to prosecution leave victims at risk by Jack Brook, Rebecca Ellis, Katrina Northrop (August 27)

• Part 3: Creating a stronger safety net for victims by Jack Brook, Rebecca Ellis, Katrina Northrop (August 27)

• Part 4: Mother, son locked in a cycle of abuse by Katrina Northrop (August 28)

• Part 5: Police training is crucial part of solution by Katrina Northrop (August 30)

• Part 6: When a ‘guardian’ becomes a financial predator by Andie Corban (August 31)

• Part 7: Gaming the system is easy for guardians by Andie Corban (September 1)

• Part 8: Scammers prey upon victims’ trust and fear by Jack Brook and Rebecca Ellis (September 2)

• Part 9: Exploitation puts a high price on friendship (September 3)

Jack Brook, one of the student journalists involved with the project, reflected, “We saw how important journalism can be to hold people in public office accountable and to press for meaningful reform,” in an interview for Brown Alumni Magazine subtitled, “An undergrad-reported series on elder abuse may influence Rhode Island policy.”