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| Inmates assist ill and dying fellow prisoners in hospices |
| By usatoday.com |
| Published: 12/03/2009 |
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ANGOLA, La. — Ted "Animal" Durbin expected prison life to be about brawls and knife fights — not changing adult diapers or bathing grown men. Four times a week, Durbin, 51, who's serving 140 years for armed robbery at Louisiana State Penitentiary, meets with frail, dying inmates at the prison's Treatment Center. He bathes them, provides other personal care and often squeezes skeletal hands as their bodies succumb to shriveled livers or stomach cancer. It's the best job he has ever had, he said. "I can't repay society for some of the things that I did," Durbin said during a recent shift at the prison's hospice program. "But I can do it right here where I'm at." The program at the penitentiary, better known as Angola state prison, is one of a growing number of hospice programs for dying inmates, said Carol McAdoo, a coordinating consultant with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. More than 75 state and federal prisons in 40 states, from California to Iowa to Texas, have hospice programs, she said. Volunteer inmates shave debilitated prisoners, give them bed baths, help them to the bathroom or clean their rooms. Many of the volunteers are lifers themselves who hope the favor is repaid when they are unable to walk 10 paces to the bathroom. "I know one day I'm going to be there," said Scott Meyers, 35, a volunteer at Angola who's serving 149 consecutive years for armed robbery and second-degree murder. "All I can do is hope there's going to be someone like me to be there for me." Read More. |
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