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Prison Hospice Care Program

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Prison Hospice Care Program
The “baby-boomer” generation is increasingly getting older as they reach their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, at a time when most will start experiencing more health problems that will require some kind of doctor’s care, hospitalization or possibly some kind of end-of-life care. Although this is a normal process that all people will eventually go through, it can be difficult and challenging for those who are in prison. Not all prisons are set up to care for inmates to receive palliative or hospice care, even those that are set up to do so, can face difficulties. Not only do these facilities face challenges; the inmates can also find themselves dealing with emotional and physical situations, but may be limited to what type of care they may receive.
The number of people in prison has reached a population of approximately 7 million in 2014 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, n.d.). In federal prisons alone, there were 195,947 inmates as of May of 2016. In March of 2016, there was an estimated 4,609 inmates that were 65 years old or older (Federal Bureau of Prisons, n.d.). The need for hospice care for prisoners is increasing at an alarming rate as criminals are given 20 plus years or life sentences as most states have eliminated the death penalty.
According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), approximately 3,000 inmates will die of natural causes each year ("End of Life," n.d., p. 1). Those numbers greatly increase when you add the inmates that attempt suicide, contract AIDS or other terminal illnesses. America has approximately 1800 prisons and only 75 of them have some kind of hospice program; whether it is within the prison or a facility that is close by, and only 20 of those use inmates as volunteers to work in the hospice program (http://www.lifemattersmedia.org/, 2014). One such hospice program operates

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