Prison Terminal is a moving cinema verité documentary that breaks through the walls of one of America’s oldest maximum security prisons to tell the story of the final months in the life of a terminally ill prisoner and the trained hospice volunteers—they themselves prisoners—who care for him.
The film draws from footage shot over a six-month period behind the walls of the Iowa State Penitentiary entering the personal lives of the prisoners as they build a prison-based, prisoner-staffed hospice program from the ground up.
Prison Terminal demonstrates the fragility, as well as the holistic benefits, of a prison-based, prisoner-staffed hospice program and provides a fascinatingand often poignant account of how the hospice experience can profoundly touch even the forsaken lives of the incarcerated.
Very good website accompanying this. The Essays page is full of good things. Click here.
I was very touched by this trailer. And inspired by the brilliance of the idea of other inmates caring for fellow felons.
It is also hard to think of a rehabilitation programme that could humanise/integrate more than this one. It
contrasts blindingly with the UK’s churlish reluctance to give prisoners the vote.
I wonder what the ‘elderly’ stats are for the UK prison population.