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A PRISON HOSPICE MODEL FOR THE FUTURE
The Federal Medical Center at Fort Worth, Texas is one of six federally run prison medical centers. Correctional medical centers like FMC-Fort Worth remain invisible spots on an American landscape in which the realities of prison life are largely obscured from the public view
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TO ADOPT OR ADAPT?
"The patient is in control. My fancy policy-manual term for this is: "autonomous decision-making at the end-of-life."
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STARTING A PRISON HOSPICE IN CONNECTICUT
"At that time we knew little about the enormous changes that had taken place in the criminal justice system, particularly the increased rates of incarceration and length of sentences; we had scant knowledge of the Connecticut prison system, and we had no connections in the Connecticut Department of Corrections."
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Prison Hospice Operational Guidelines
(MS Word document)

Finding Common Ground for Hospice Care in Connecticut Prisons
(MS Word document)

Hospice and Palliative Care in Prisons (pdf)

Prison Hospice Bibliography

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS
"Highway 287 shoots pretty straight southeast from Fort Worth across the bleak Texas flatlands, amid random clusters of ranch buildings, scattered groups of grazing cattle, and stands of stunted scrub oaks."
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AN INSIDE VIEW : INTERVIEW WITH FLEET MAULL
"When I arrived here in December, 1985, I was immediately struck by the amount of suffering. Out in the yard and in the halls you see people in wheels chairs."
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A VISIT TO MOHAWK-WALSH
"Approaching the Mohawk-Walsh Medium Security Prison, images from prison movies come to mind: the high walls, the barbed wire, and the impenetrable, dead quality."
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FIXING TO DIE
"Glen Herbert is spending the last day of his life in the infirmary at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. His family won't make it to the prison before he dies, but he has two friends, Michael Singletary and Claude Donald, sitting by his bedside. "
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ROLL CALL WITH A TWIST
"It is 7am. The night shift is ending. A new day and a new shift are about to begin in the fifth largest jail system in the country. The Philadelphia prison system houses close to 7000 inmates and employs over 1400 correctional officers."
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PROFILE: TANYA TILLMAN
"Tanya Tillman is exactly where she wants to be - Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Not serving time, but giving it, along with an abundance of care, good humor, acceptance and enthusiasm toward the inmate volunteers and the terminally ill patient's in the hospice program housed in Angola's 40-bed medical treatment center."
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CONNECTICUT FEASIBILITY STUDY
This essay examines information collected from inmates while they were incarcerated.
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INTERVIEW WITH FLORENCE WALD:
"In 1958, I became the Dean of the Nursing School at Yale, at a time when the university was looking for ways for the professional schools to be integrated into the university."
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INTERVIEW WITH FLORENCE WALD (part 2):
" We know forgiveness is necessary for people on the outside, and there is less opportunity in prison for that forgiveness to take place. It is important to allow for that healing, for the patient and other people."
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PRISON HOSPICE NEWS EDITORIAL BY NINA QUINN
"Recently NPHA received a letter seething with anger and vengeance. It was from a man who wants prison hospice programs banned."
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AP News: INMATES VOLUNTEER TO CARE
"The first time Harvey Caron went to prison - seven years in a federal pen for flying marijuana out of Mexico - he spent all his spare time in the weight room. When he had done his time, he walked out bigger and badder. "
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MEDICAL PAROLE: POLITICS VS. COMPASSION
"Dostoevsky reminds us that society can be measured by how it treats its prisoners. And part of that measure must surely be the degree of compassion we show toward the dying. Yet compassionate release, or medical parole, is an under-used and too rarely granted option for terminally ill inmates in our U.S. prisons. "
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A SHIFT OF FOCUS
"The main point of this conference is to discuss the challenges of providing adequate end-of-life (EOL) care in prisons."
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THE GOOD DEATH: THE NEW AMERICAN SEARCH TO RESHAPE END OF LIFE
Physically, Marilyn Webb's book is big enough nearly five hundred pages; but it seems much larger in what it covers the vast and conflicting scene surrounding death in America today.
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HEALING AFTER LOSS: BEREAVEMENT HELP FOR THE CORRECTIONAL COMMUNITY
"The reality of prison and jail life makes it very difficult for individuals to do the kind of grief work that leads to healing. Showing vulnerability is not part of prison culture."
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When Death Enters Your Life: A Grief Pamphlet for People in Prisons & Jails
download pdf file....

LEARNING TO LOVE: REFLECTIONS OF AN INMATE VOLUNTEER
"My name is Dawn Sheppard and I have been at Carswell for almost four years. I've been incarcerated for a little over seven."
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DOING FAMILY IN A WOMAN'S HOSPICE
"When the program was first set up as a result of Johnson's pioneering efforts, the women were not at all open to entering it--even those who would benefit from it the most. Johnson was baffled: the women she counseled seemed to understand the purpose of hospice and how it would help them through the dark days ahead, but they still refused. What was she doing wrong?"
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WORKING THE FAMILY NETWORK
""What will happen to me in years to come if I don't get parole or a pardon, when I get old, sick?" That's a question we're asking ourselves. We see so many of our friends, people we are growing old with, getting sick. Who takes care of them? We have to become our own family, and believe me that happens."
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