End-of-Life Care Behind Bars
A Periodic Literature Search

End-of-Life Care Behind Bars

Regular reviews of articles and reports on key issues in prison hospice and palliative care. Click on the red icon to download a PDF of each report. 

May 2026

HIGHLIGHTS: Aging prison population and compassionate release inextricably linked, with articles, reports, etc., from Canada, Germany, the UK the US, and Switzerland; latest posting includes a number of articles that focus (or touch upon) the health and well-being of the female prison population, e.g., aging prison population; high costs of incarcerating senior citizens in women’s prisons; gender-specific healthcare needs of incarcerated women; prisons are failing women with cancer; few peer-to-peer programs for incarcerated women; compassionate leave for elderly women inmates

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April 2026

HIGHLIGHTS: Different perspective on the issue of person-centred language; quality of correctional healthcare in many countries; motivations of prison end-of-life peer volunteers from advocates’ perspectives; legislation would see Illinois Department of Corrections’ end-of-life peer support program; national framework for the provision of palliative care in Australian prisons; questions about access to hospice for prison inmates raised in UK parliament; end-of-life care and surrogate decision-making for hospitalized incarcerated persons; issue of compassionate release gaining increased attention

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March 2026

HIGHLIGHTS: A case for releasing elders from California’s women’s prisons; judge seizes control of Arizona’s prison healthcare after 14 years of failures; conducting ethical health research in prisons; the power of peer support programs in prisons; inmate-founded hospice program reshapes culture at Illinois prison; a prison unit for the dying—in pictures; equitable palliative care in prisons: Integrating advanced care planning; caring for formerly incarcerated patients in hospice and palliative care

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February 2026

HIGHLIGHTS: A unique project at the University of Basel in Switzerland focusing on the aging prison population, including a “public engagement” initiative; healthcare professionals’ perspective on correctional healthcare; telemedicine—the game changer in future prison healthcare setting; a unique perspective on medical care at Louisiana State Penitentiary, with detailed discussion of the prison’s hospice program; barriers and facilitators in providing palliative and end-of-life care in prison settings; resurrecting a prison doula program

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January 2026

HIGHLIGHTS: Growing old in prison; who is accountable for prison medical neglect; correctional healthcare standards demand a culture shift; mortality prediction model for incarcerated adults to identify palliative care needs; hospice in prison; promoting health literacy in prisons; it’s hard to grieve in prison; finding little compassion in compassionate release

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December 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Transferring governance of correctional healthcare services; quality of correctional healthcare services provided by for-profit prison healthcare; expanding end-of-life options for incarcerated individuals; prison hospice program for the living and the dying; Hospice UK’s National Conference papers on end-of-life care in prisons; the concept of “prison hospice”; care planning in correctional healthcare; compassionate release for terminally ill prison inmates

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November 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Nothing has changed in six years, says Canada’s prison ombudsman; under-standing healthcare inequality in federal prisons; healthcare crisis behind bars; medical autonomy in correctional healthcare; culturally sensitive end-of-life care for Indigenous peoples who are incarcerated; correctional health and oncologist perspectives on strategies to improve cancer care; barriers and facilitators in providing palliative and end-of-life care in prison settings; nursing home availability for incarcerated persons granted compassionate release

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October 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Older women in prison; humanitarian crisis of rapidly aging prison population; caring for aging prisoners is not merely a matter of logistics; prison’s invisible caregivers; barriers and facilitators in providing palliative and end-of-life care in prison settings; hospice services for elderly incarcerated people facing terminal illness; meanings around place of death when home is a prison; surrogate decision-making for hospitalized incarcerated persons; prison is no place to grieve; compassionate release a moral and fiscal imperative

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September 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Elderly and sick inmates dependent on other prisoners; addressing healthcare inequalities in prisons; failures in prisons causing alarming, but predictable, health outcomes; what’s needed to improve the prison health system; opportunities and challenges caring for incarcerated patients in inpatient palliative care; where compassionate care meets capital punishment; care planning in correctional healthcare; failed compassionate release and medical parole policies and practices; emotional journey of caring for a convicted killer in hospice care

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August 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Structural, cultural and personal barriers to healthcare for older adults in prison; prison health and society’s well-being; association between health and prison overcrowding; why can’t dying prisoners move to a hospice; engaging community hospices in end-of-life-care in prisons; end-of-life care behind bars (a Canadian perspective); compassionate release and medical parole

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July 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Struggling to accommodate an ageing population; inside Germany’s “grandpa prisons”; public health prescription for U.S. carceral facilities; health conditions among women in prisons; whistleblower sounds the alarm on inadequate prison healthcare; barriers to preventive and palliative healthcare for justice-involved older adults; inmate comfort care program for terminally ill patients; redefining compassionate release to address the dementia crisis in prisons; French nursing home accepts inmates others won’t

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June 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Practical strategies to enable acceptable and feasible health research in prisons; culturally safe care for Indigenous prisoners; end-of-life care options for people in prison; dying well in prison settings; freedom and care at the end of life; prisons routinely ignore guidelines on dying inmates’ end-of-life choices; voluntary assisted dying in correctional settings; model for handling an aging, ailing prison population

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May 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Linkages between incarceration and health for older adults; analysis of state prison policies regarding the care of incarcerated patients; prison health research council; health literacy behind bars; cancer diagnosis not properly explained to inmate or family; delivering specialist palliative care to an inmate in a high-security prison; rethinking autonomy in healthcare for incarcerated patients; first anniversary of the End-of-Life Care Behind Bars website

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April 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Aging prison population strains corrections budget; the burdens of care borne by the loved ones of incarcerated men; investing in prison primary healthcare to target vulnerable groups; systemic failures in Dutch women’s prisons leave inmates without critical medical care; the quality of care in correctional facilities in low- and middle-income countries; landmark report on supporting loved ones in prison with health issues; prison as a place for dying; grief and loss in correctional facilities

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March 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Prison Policy Initiative report explains notoriously bad correctional healthcare; four in ten who took their lives in prison were denied adequate healthcare; more inmates, fewer doctors; incarcerated women’s right to health; peer-led end-of-life care at the Central California Women’s Facility; terminal illness in prison infirmaries; research in progress

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February 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Addressing the challenges of aging prison populations; the scope and impact of life and long-term imprisonment; one way to save lives in jail; correctional health services standards; compassionate end-of-life care in America's prisons; aging and dying in prison; global challenges persist in bringing hospice care to incarcerated populations; should elderly prisoners get early release?

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January 2025

HIGHLIGHTS: Peer caregiving in prisons; a public health framework for carceral health; review of First Nations healthcare in prisons; aging and dying in prison; engaging the hospice community in end-of-life care in prisons (parts 1 & 2); experiencing life-limiting illness behind bars; helping imprisoned women plan for end of life; the psychosocial aspects of palliative care provision for incarcerated persons

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December 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Establishing national standards for carceral healthcare; Indigenous community-controlled prison health service for First Nations people; life without parole and euthanasia; the complexity of palliative care for those in prison; bereavement support in prisons; why correctional facilities should more widely implement medical parole for incarcerated individuals

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November 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: The unique needs of senior inmates; healthcare barriers for incarcerated Indigenous Peoples; governance of prison healthcare; facilitators and barriers in palliative and end-of-life care in prisons; prison clinicians, hospital clinicians and correctional officers perspectives on palliative care; inmate’s documentary on dying alone wins first-ever prison film festival and parole on the same day

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October 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Moving elderly prisoners to secure care homes; ethical and organizational issues of healthcare services in prison; palliative care needs and experiences of people in prison; who gets compassionate release; interesting reads you might have missed

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September 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Prisons becoming nursing homes; human rights issues; prison health surveillance; the concept of “prison hospice”; quality, culturally safe, people-centred healthcare and services in correctional facilities; coping with a father’s death behind bars; interesting readings you might have missed

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August 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Impact of prison on elderly inmates; governance of healthcare in custody; the role of prison healthcare; facilitating palliative care for people in prison; medical decision-making in correctional facilities; medical assistance in dying

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July 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Health equity for people living in correctional facilities; unmet healthcare needs of incarcerated Indigenous peoples; end of life in hospitalized prisoners; medical assistance in dying for prisoners

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June 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Healthcare and healthcare governance in prisons; dying in prison; do community hospices support prisons to provide end-of-life care; grief and bereavement in the prison environment

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May 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: The rapidly growing US prison population; governance of prison healthcare; how do people in prison access palliative care?

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March 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Aging behind bars; redefining healthcare behind bars; the transformative power of prison hospice programs

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January 2024

HIGHLIGHTS: Shocking state of prisoner health; dying alone in prison and the social responsibility of medicine; compassionate release of dying inmates

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November 2023

HIGHLIGHTS: Palliative care among incarcerated populations; grieving and finding comfort in death behind bars

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September 2023

HIGHLIGHTS: Prison system struggling to keep up with growing need for palliative care; how many hospice programs exist in prisons

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July 2023

HIGHLIGHTS: Prison hospices are changing lives; transforming the way prisoners die; motivation and training needs of prison healthcare professionals

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2022

Backgrounder on prison hospice/palliative care research and media coverage from 2018-2022

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