Our history
At the core of Humane’s work is the transformative power of incarcerated people providing care to their peers.
Our collective DNA
Central to the spirit of Humane Prison Hospice Project is the organic involvement of communities inside and outside of prisons . . . caring, supportive people too numerous to name in a brief history, yet vital to the work. You are seen and deeply appreciated.
Sandra Fish and Michael Satris worked together in Michael’s law practice, seeking justice for incarcerated individuals.
A catalytic question
The seed of Humane Prison Hospice Project was sowed in the Law Offices of Michael Satris, in Bolinas, California. Sandra Fish, who has experience with dying people and prison work, was working part-time there.
When Michael mentioned that one of his clients had terminal lung disease, she wondered aloud, “How are they dying in San Quentin?”
“Badly” was his immediate and solemn response.
Sandra immediately began looking for ways to begin offering humane end-of-life care for incarcerated people.
“Serving Life” is a documentary, narrated and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, that explores life at Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, where incarcerated men care for their fellow inmates as they die.
Insight from the beginning
Sandra made endless connections in the intervening years. One of those was to Brothers’ Keepers, a peer crisis support program in San Quentin, which had begun independently. Marcia Blackstock and Diane Beynon, the founding facilitators, took note when the Brothers asked for hospice training.
Sandra had learned from her research that when prisoners care for fellow prisoners at the end of life, the experience is transformational — a profoundly rehabilitative experience for all involved. It became clear to her that this work needed to be implemented by trained incarcerated people.
From 2010 to 2012, she gave the Brothers’ Keepers information about the new work they aspired to do, organized speakers from Hospice by The Bay and the Zen Hospice Project to meet with the men, and screened the film “Serving Life,” about a working prison hospice, for the group.
Sandra Fish and Ladybird Morgan found they shared a passion for the concept of in-prison hospice.
NEW INTEREST
Late in the year, Sandra met Ladybird Morgan from Hospice by the Bay. Ladybird was a highly trained social worker and nurse with expertise in end-of-life care. Ladybird approached Sandra with great interest in joining the mission and Sandra felt thrilled as Ladybird possessed all the credentials she lacked. However, Ladybird was leaving to work for Doctors Without Borders for three years and told Sandra, “Don’t start without me!” She assured Ladybird the mission would still need her upon her return.
“Prison Terminal” is a 2013 documentary by Edgar Barens. Given unprecedented access inside Iowa State Penitentiary, Barens follows the last six months in the life of Jack Hall, a WWII veteran incarcerated for the murder of his dead son’s drug dealer.
THE POWER OF STORYTELLING
Katherine Pettus, a leader at the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (who would become a Humane board member two years later), introduced Sandra to Edgar Barens who had just released his Oscar-nominated documentary, “Prison Terminal.”
His film became a pivotal tool for Humane, educating and inspiring the public, end-of-life care workers, prison staff — including wardens, and incarcerated people.
The number of Americans in U.S. jails, prisons and juvenile detention centers has increased dramatically since about 1980.
REFINING THE APPROACH
Sandra and Ladybird already knew that training incarcerated people to be caregivers would be crucial to the success of Humane. By this time, they had determined that formerly incarcerated people must be involved as well.
Ladybird Morgan and Sandy Fish celebrated with Marvin Mutch upon his release from prison — and got to work.
GAINING A HERO ADVOCATE
Ladybird returned, and just months after Marvin Mutch aka the “Mayor of San Quentin” was released from prison for a crime he did not commit, she and Sandra met him for lunch on his first birthday in the outside world in 40 years. Not only had Marvin finished his sentence at California Medical Facility, where he witnessed its hospice program firsthand, but he also had been a founding member of the Brothers’ Keepers. Humane Prison Hospice Project was officially born. Men incarcerated in San Quentin and enrolled in a computer programming training course offered by The Last Mile created Humane’s logo and first website.
Critical collaborations with staff members from Mission Hospice accelerated Humane’s momentum.
ONE CHAPTER CLOSES, MORE DOORS OPEN
Marcia and Diane retired and transitioned the Brothers’ Keepers, which had been overseen by Insight Prison Project, to Humane’s management. This gave Sandra and Ladybird weekly access inside San Quentin in order to facilitate the program and officially add end-of-life care training. In June, seeking support, Ladybird, Marvin, Edgar, and Sandra met with two Mission Hospice & Home Care staff members, Lisa Deal and Susan Barber. At the time, Lisa was chief clinical officer at Mission and Susan served as the organization’s volunteer coordinator. Mission offered to sponsor the end-of-life training at San Quentin, leveraging the curriculum that Susan had developed for a community-based model. Susan joined Ladybird to train the Brothers’ Keepers.
Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the oldest prison in California. It is also the site of the state’s only death row, which is the most populated in the U.S.
Celebration
A group of nine Brothers’ Keepers graduated from the first Compassionate End-of-Life Care Training on April 23.
During the global COVID-19 pandemic, protesters gathered outside San Quentin and other prisons to draw attention to how incarcerated people are living and dying behind bars.
A global pandemic
Humane was preparing to graduate a second cohort of Brothers’ Keepers trained in end-of-life care when COVID-19 hit. Prisons were shut down.
Ken Ross of the EKR Foundation visits with the Humane team. Left to right: Ken Ross, Ladybird Morgan, Sandra Fish, Marvin Mutch, Edgar Barens, Susan Barber and Lisa Deal.
Coming back together
“Five years after their first meeting, Lisa, Susan, Ladybird, Marvin and Sandra began working together as a team, with Lisa as the chief executive officer of Humane, Susan filling the roles of community liaison and volunteer manager, and Edgar as an integral part of the team.
With the California prisons still on lockdown and online meetings suddenly a popular way to gather people from around the globe, Humane redoubled its efforts to educate key audiences and stakeholders about the needs of those aging and dying behind bars and how to support them. Humane reached more than 1,000 people during this time alone.”
Marvin Mutch shares his story at a community fundraising event for Humane.
Momentum
Dr. Michele DiTomas, the newly appointed chief executive for a palliative care initiative at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, invited the Humane team to partner. Together, the two organizations began developing a robust palliative care and hospice peer support training curriculum to expand the use of peer palliative/hospice workers in additional California prisons. The new curriculum will be completed in early 2023.
The Humane team looks forward to the proliferation of prison hospice programs as long as they are needed.
WHAT’S NEXT
Humane will pilot the new palliative care and hospice peer support curriculum at California Medical Facility (home of the only formal prison hospice program in California and one of the first in the nation, built in 1993 in response to the AIDS crisis) in Summer 2023, then at Central California Women’s Facility later this year. The plan is for broader implementation at other California prisons in the coming years.