Hospice in prison: the Louisiana State Penitentiary Hospice Program.

This article by the hospice case manager and inmate volunteer coordinator at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) hospice program describes the program's major features, how it was started and is sustained within the confines and culture of prison life, and how the challenges to implementing a hospice program within a maximum security prison continue to be met. Recommendations are offered for undertaking a hospice initiative in a correctional facility. The LSP Hospice Program was honored in May 2000 with the Circle of Life Award from the American Hospital Association. This article is excerpted from a thematic issue, "Hospice in Prison," Volume 2, Number 3, 2000 of the online journal, Innovations in End-of-Life Care at http://www.edc.org/lastacts/