Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall is an Oscar-nominated 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 hospice volunteers, themselves prisoners, who care for him. The documentary provides a fascinating and poignant account of how the hospice experience profoundly touches even the forsaken lives of the incarcerated.

Educational Objectives:

Describe the potential benefits of hospice for the terminally ill prisoner, the prisoner hospice volunteer and the family of the terminally ill prisoner

Review the technical, logistical and sociopolitical difficulties in setting up a prison-based, prisoner-run hospice program in a maximum security prison

Differentiate between the care provided by trained prisoner hospice volunteers and the nonhospice, noncorrectional alternative

Level: Basic