I don't know 'bout religion
I only know what I see
And in the end when I hold their hand
It's both of us set free

These are the ending lyrics to Bonnie Raitt’s song “Down the Hall”, an ode to the Pastoral Care Workers who care for their fellow inmates in the hospice unit at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California. On last week’s podcast we interviewed the medical director and the chaplain of the prison’s hospice unit (Hospice in Prison Part 1). This week we turn our attention to the inmates.

Pastoral Care Workers are inmates who volunteer time to care for the dying who come from all around California to spend their last days, weeks or months in the prison’s hospice unit, fulfilling a mission that “no prisoner dies alone.”

On today's podcast we talk with three of these Pastoral Care Workers, Jerry Judson, Jeffrey Maria, and Allan Krenitzky. We discuss with them why they decided to volunteer for the hospice unit, what a day in the life of a Pastoral Care Worker looks like, and among other things their thoughts on forgiveness, redemption, rehabilitation, and compassionate release.

We also had the pleasure to take a walk through the hospice unit garden with Mr. Gerald Hite. He taught us a little about the different flowers and plants, and along the way a little about why he does what he does.

While this is a podcast about volunteers in a prison hospice, I think it also serves as a lesson for us all about how we make meaning to our own lives and define ourselves by not only what we have done in the past, but what we do now. One story that Allan told perfectly sums this up. He said one day his son asked his wife what he does for a living, and his wife said “Papa helps sick people.”

Hospice in Prison Part 2: An interview with the Pastoral Care Workers

GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast