Thousands in need of end-of-life caregiving die in prison every year. Some people ask, “So what? Did these
prisoners treat their victims with dignity? Why be concerned about their death
journeys?” One response is that society should be held to a higher standard of
treating prisoners better than they treated victims. At several prisons, inmate
hospice volunteers serve as caregivers for terminally ill inmates. There are those who say
this is the ultimate test for inmates to prove whether they have changed or
not.
Serving Life, a film that premiered on the Oprah
Winfrey Network (OWN), documents a hospice program inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary,
a maximum-security prison at Angola. Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker narrates
and produces this film. Hospice volunteer inmates viewed as hardened criminals care
for dying fellow inmates at this prison where inmates have average sentences of
more than 90 years. Can these inmates find redemption through caregiving
involvement with hospice care?
Frances Shani Parker,
Author
Becoming Dead Right: A
Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes
is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at
booksellers such as
Amazon and Barnes and Noble .
I worked at Angola State Prison in Louisiana. This prison had a Hospice within one of the medical units that I worked. The other inmates did assist a lot with the care and would volunteer to sit at all times with the inmates when the end was near. I don't think that the caring for other inmates would affect them when released from prison. I think their actions depend on their surrondings at that particular time.
ReplyDelete