Prison Hospice Success Secrets (Research, Video 2:54)

It is estimated that 20% of America’s prison population will be elderly by 2025. Many will eventually need quality end-of-life care. More prisons are establishing hospice programs for an aging prison population. Inmate hospice volunteers play an important role. If a terminally ill patient is in prison, attentive caregiving can be especially beneficial when given by familiar faces of those who have also experienced the prison system.

What makes a successful hospice prison program? Research on the Louisiana State Penitentiary Prison Hospice Program, a long-running model of care, reports on what is needed to develop a successful program. Based on field observations and in-depth interviews with hospice staff, inmate volunteers, and corrections officers, these are the five essential elements credited with the long-term operation of this program:

     1.     Patient-centered Care

     2.     Inmate Volunteer Model

     3.     Safety and Security

     4.     Shared Values

     5.     Teamwork

This video trailer of the film “Serving Life” documents an extraordinary hospice program where hardened criminals care for dying fellow inmates. The prison, a former slave plantation the size of Manhattan, is Louisiana's maximum security prison at Angola where the average sentence is more than 90 years.

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 online and offline booksellers.
Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Older Hospice Prisoners: Compassionate Release or Life in Prison? (Video 4:51)

As many as 3,300 inmates in the U.S. die in prison every year. Quality end-of-life care in prison continues to grow as more prisons establish hospice programs, particularly for an aging prison population. Inmate hospice volunteers play an important role. If a terminally ill patient is in prison, attentive caregiving can be especially beneficial when given by familiar faces of those who have also experienced the prison system.

Compassionate release is a legal system that gives inmates early release from prison sentences based on medical or humanitarian changes in the prisoner's situation. Compassionate release procedures can be mandated by the courts or by internal corrections authorities.

Controversial discussions continue to surround the topic of early release options for older adult inmates who are infirm and ill. Referred to as “compassionate release” and “medical parole,” supporters feel that placing these inmates in private medical facilities would be more cost effective for the prison system, especially for prisoners serving life terms and no longer considered a danger to society. Others who support victims of heinous crimes are adamant that prisoners should serve their life terms in prison regardless of their age and severity of their illness. What do you think?

This video explains the compassionate release program and features experiences of dying prisoners and hospice inmates who care for them.

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 many booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble .

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Prison Inmate Hospice Volunteers: Can They Change? (Video 2:55)

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 .

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog