In the early 1990’s, California Medical Facility (CMF) created one of the nation’s first licensed hospice units inside a prison. This 17-bed unit serves inmates from all over the state who are approaching the end of their lives. A few are let out early on compassionate release.  Many are there until they die.

Today’s podcast is part one of a two-part podcast where we spend a day at CMF, a medium security prison located about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, and the hospice unit housed inside its walls. 

We start off part one by interviewing Michele DiTomas, who has been the longstanding Medical Director of the Hospice unit and currently is also the Chief Medical Executive for the Palliative care Initiative with the California Correctional Healthcare Services.  We talk about the history of the hospice unit, including how it was initially set up to care for young men dying of AIDS, but now cares for a very different demographic – the rapidly aging prison population.  We also talk about the eligibility for the unit, what makes it run including the interdisciplinary team and the inmate peer workers, and the topic of compassionate release.

Afterwards, we chat with the prison’s chaplain, Keith Knauf.  Keith per many reports, is the heart and sole of the hospice unit and oversees the Pastoral Care Workers.  These are inmates that volunteer to work in the hospice unit, serving a mission that “no prisoner dies alone.”   We chat with Keith about how hospice in prison is different and similar to community hospice work, the selection process and role of the peer support workers, the role of forgiveness and spirituality in the care of dying inmates, and what makes this work both rewarding and hard.

Part two of the podcast, which comes next week, is solely focused on the Pastoral Care Workers.  We interview three of them in the hospice unit and take a little tour of the hospice gardens.