Characteristics of prison hospice programs in the United States

Hospice programs have emerged over the last 40 years as both an effective and humane practice for responding to terminal illnesses in the free society. More recently, hospice has diffused throughout state, federal, and municipal correctional systems. Thus, we sought via a mailed survey of the 69 known prison hospice programs in the United States (response rate of 62%) to determine how prison hospice programs were similar or dissimilar to hospices in the free society. Our findings suggest that prison hospices have a more stringent screening process for volunteers and require more volunteer training prior to interacting with a hospice patient. Prison hospice programs tend to follow both the National Prison Hospice Association and the GRACE Project guidelines.