By Barbara Chenevert
Staff Writer
Mike Dancer doesn?t have long to live.
Volunteer Randolph Matthieu feeds inmate Mick Dancer, who is under the care of the hospice program at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. About 36 offenders volunteer for the hospice program that takes care of the needs of dying inmates. Photos by Barbara Chenevert | The Catholic Commentator.
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For the next few months, his home will be a single bed in a small room in the infirmary at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where he will struggle to eat, write his name and even talk.
But when he draws his last breath, Dancer will not be alone. He will be surrounded by his ?inmate family,? a group of fellow offenders who have lovingly taken care of his needs to the end. They are volunteers with the Angola hospice care program.
?It?s a ministry of presence,? said inmate Randolph Matthieu, who is a Catholic peer minister and who has been a hospice volunteer since the program started in 1998.
The majority of inmates at Angola are serving life sentences. It is Louisiana?s only maximum-security prison and has an inmate population of more than 5,000 men.
For the inmates, when death approaches, many have outlived their families or have long since lost contact with them, Matthieu said.
Hospice volunteers step in to assist with the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their fellow inmates who are terminally ill. They feed them, bathe them, change their diapers and bed linens, and then wash their bodies when they die in preparation for their burial. Sometimes the hospice volunteers also take care of burying the man who has died.
But most of all the hospice volunteers listen.
?You really become their ears. You have to take on what they are feeling ? guilt, pain. They trust us enough to release what they may have been holding in for many years,? said inmate Steve Garner, who has worked with the hospice program for 14 years.
?Hospice is just being there for that person, letting him vent. Letting him be comfortable with you so he can make decisions at the end of his life. It?s a caring community just to sit with people and help them enjoy every aspect? of the time they have left, said offender Vashon Kelly.
A hospice volunteer hugs a dying inmate. The volunteers not only take care of the physical needs of sick inmates, but also offer emotional and spiritual support. Photo provided by Louisiana State Penitentiary.
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Sick inmates are moved into hospice care when doctors think they have only about six months to live. They are given extra privileges ? a television, videos, snacks, increased family visitation time and a hospice team of fellow inmates. Each patient is assigned six hospice volunteers who visit them regularly and care for their needs, Matthieu explained. When death draws near, the team will set up an around-the-clock vigil so that the offender who is dying is never alone.
?When we come into this world our mothers take care of us, bathing us, feeding us, etc. When you go out, it?s the same way. We take the place of the mother for the offender,? Matthieu said.
Matthieu, who is serving a life sentence, said he was drawn to the hospice program because of his experiences with death in prison. Once he went to visit a friend, who had died during the night, and no one knew it. There were 30 men around him, but they thought he was just sleeping. Another friend had lung cancer and was moved into a room by himself. The only people allowed to touch him were on the medical staff. He would die alone, Matthieu said.
Matthieu credits Warden Burl Cain with initiating the hospice program at Angola. The warden felt that life should end with dignity and inmates shouldn?t have to die alone. He had heard of a similar program in another institution and decided to start it here.
Matthieu has seen a lot of death. ?When you see some die rough ? fighting to the end ? you know they have no peace. Others die in serenity. It really makes you think about God.?
?It?s real spiritual for me. It brings me closer to God. With that last breath they are taking, you know they are making that transition. They are going to heaven or purgatory. The angels that come down to take the soul where it is going, I am in their presence. It gives me joy of life that some day I will be in that position.?
Kelly said he wants to do so much for the offenders who are ill, but ?I have to take myself out of the equation and become their hands, head and heart. That?s the most beautiful thing I?ve experienced.?
Kelly relayed the story of one inmate who didn?t have family. He wanted to be buried at the prison. ?To this day, I don?t know if his family even knows he died. It made me cling closer to him to fill the void. I wanted to give him the love and support he needed at that time.?
The families of many offenders who die in prison claim the bodies for burial outside of prison. Those who are buried on the grounds are laid in caskets built by inmates. A service is held in the Angola Chapel, often led by hospice volunteers. The deceased is then brought to Point Lookout, the cemetery on the 18,000-acre prison campus, in a horse-drawn hearse escorted by inmates who follow on foot or on a bus.
Offenders Gerald Grabert, front, and David Bacon build caskets for inmates who die at the Angola prison.?
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Kelly, who is also serving a life sentence, said his participation in the hospice program has made him humble. ?In prison I?ve lost a lot of liberties. When you grow in this place, you learn your position as a person and a man. Hospice gives back to me the ability to act in a caring community; to do a service for humanity.?
For Garner, hospice fulfills a purpose and a calling ? to help someone who can?t help himself.
Sometimes the terminally ill inmates placed in hospice have a lot of anger, Matthieu said. It?s best for them to let it out. All people don?t accept death the same way. The hospice volunteers often get the brunt of that anger, but they encourage the sick to release their anger.
The inmates said the hospice program has been responsible for reuniting some families, citing examples of inmates who have lost contact with a son or a daughter.??We do whatever it takes to arrange a visit,? Matthieu said.
Hospice volunteers don?t judge and don?t discriminate, the inmates said.
?Love don?t see any color. Love just sees a need,? Garner said. ?The guys know if you are sincere. It is a language that they can see. ?
Each hospice volunteer has a regular job in the prison ? Matthieu is a legal aid, Garner works in the library.
?Hospice is voluntary and is above and beyond our jobs. It?s something we do on our own time,? Matthieu said.
Volunteers are extensively screened and interviewed, and those who pass are put through an intensive training program.
Offender Steve Garner sews a quilt that will be sold to help defray expenses of the hospice care program.
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Garner is also responsible for the quilting program, operated by the offenders to raise money for the hospice care. The quilts are sold at the annual Angola rodeo and funds are used to buy extra food and toiletries for the dying inmates. Sometimes the money may be used to help fund traveling expenses for the families of sick inmates who may not be able to afford to visit their loved ones.
?We just try to make them a little more comfortable, to give them the comforts of home and a few privileges,? Garner said.
Garner said the inmates have made a quilt, which they call the ?passage quilt? that is draped over the person when he dies as a way to add dignity to their death. Another quilt is draped over each inmate?s casket during the service in the chapel.
?Hospice care starts six months before (death) and continues until they are laid in the ground. We are there every step of the way,? Garner said.
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Source: http://thecatholiccommentator.org/pages/?p=9053
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