Following are selected articles, reports, etc., from the latest (November) posting on the End-of-Life Care Behind Bars website. Access the monthly postings at: https://bit.ly/47sVCRU
Old age, risk and vulnerability: A humanitarian-punitive ethos
PUNISHMENT & SOCIETY (U.K.) | Online – 8 October 2025 – This article examines how old age, risk and vulnerability intersect in prison, introducing the concept of a humanitarian-punitive ethos to describe the carceral governance of older prisoners. Traditionally, in the social sciences, the figure of the older prisoner is viewed through two opposing lenses: vulnerability (aligned with care) and risk (tied to control). The author shows how these logics coexist in practice. Staff are tasked with both protecting and managing “dormant threats” posed by older prisoners, framing their vulnerability as a condition to be managed rather than a reason to reconsider their incarceration. This dual role reshapes how “the older prisoner” is understood and constructed, how prison work is experienced, and how aging challenges the carceral logic itself. The findings and argument have policy implications: they call for expanded release mechanisms and time-capped sentences… Full text: https://bit.ly/4h6UF6e
Recognizing carceral health as a public health discipline
CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH (U.S.) | Online – 18 October 2025 – A historical prohibition of federal fund usage for incarcerated populations has led to both significant resource constraints for carceral healthcare entities and a lack of formalized and consistently enforced healthcare benchmark for incarcerated people. This has resulted in subpar healthcare standards and delivery and poor health outcomes, ultimately driving up costs for both carceral health systems and the communities to which people return to upon release. Public health agencies are well suited to help improve carceral health given their mission of health promotion and integral role in public safety, but their historical tendency towards disease and crisis-specific interventions in carceral settings has contributed to a fragmented presence and a longstanding disconnect with carceral entities that has affected the quality of interagency collaboration. The complexity and uniqueness of carceral health warrants its recognition as a public health discipline… Full text: https://bit.ly/3LiDzWZ
Understanding the scale and nature of avoidable harm in prison healthcare
UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (U.K.) | Online – 29 September 2025 – Older adults are the fastest growing group in prisons in England and Wales, with an associated high demand for health and social care. Examining healthcare records to assess care quality and safety … can inform epidemiological estimates of healthcare-associated harm, and reviewing the data within medical records provides an opportunity to assess the safety of all care provided, not just that provided by the prison healthcare team alone. Prison healthcare is inherently less safe when compared with other healthcare settings such as community primary care. Overall, secure environments are a challenging setting to deliver care and equitable outcomes for patients, and there is clear need for government policy to prioritise safer healthcare in prisons, and for strategic action plans that commit sufficient resource and new ways of working that will deliver it to address some of the common causes of avoidable harm. Full text:https://bit.ly/42DMoRg
Palliative and End-of-Life Care at the Deep End: Trauma-informed and inclusive approaches to palliative and end-of-life care for people experiencing marginalisation (Extract: People in prison)
THE CHURCHILL TRUST (U.K.) | Online – 24 October 2025 – The end-of-life (EoLC) care needs of people in prison should be a major concern for palliative care. The need for high-quality palliative and EoLC is projected to increase, as a result of ongoing punitive sentencing practices, the ageing population, and the health inequities people have experienced prior to being in prison (due to overlapping structural vulnerabilities). It may be the case that improving attitudes and awareness of palliative and EoLC will lead to people in prison being discharged during their period of advancing illness, to be in the community ultimately at the time of their deaths. However, for now, people are ageing and/or getting sicker in prisons and dying in prisons – and so improving care access and provision in prisons remains a priority. The Ambitions for Palliative & End of Life Care Partnership … sets out the following ambitions for EoLC of people in prison.1 Download report (scroll down to p.34) at: https://bit.ly/47OykpZ
- ‘Dying well in custody charter: A national framework for local action,’ National Health Service England (2024): https://bit.ly/4evqeEQ
Culturally sensitive end-of-life care for Indigenous peoples who are incarcerated (Part 1)
END-OF-LIFE CARE BEHIND BARS.COM | Online – 15 October 2025 – Culturally sensitive healthcare for Indigenous peoples who are incarcerated is steadily gaining traction in the literature. Less attention, however, is given to palliative and end-of-life care (P&EoL) for one of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized populations; research focussed on the Indigenous peoples of Australia, Canada and New Zealand is dominant. No matter from what cultural perspective P&EoL is viewed, there remains striking similarities in the observations and conclusions drawn in many reviews of the literature from one country to the next, and from one culture to the next. There appears to be a serious lack of studies, however, that directly examine end-of-life care for Indigenous peoples who are incarcerated. This absence in itself is telling. There is an urgent need for future research that centers Indigenous voices and experiences in correctional healthcare… This article offers a brief overview of the current thinking. Full text: https://bit.ly/4oeF0Ec
These families wanted to lay their loved ones to rest.
They had to bring them home from prison first.
THE MARSHALL PROJECT (U.S.) | Online – 28 October 2025 – Policies that dictate what happens after a death behind bars often add new layers of pain – and financial and logistical challenges – for those left behind (see sidebar). To understand the hurdles families have to clear, The Marshall Project requested the policies and procedures for responding to deaths in custody from every state prison system and the federal Bureau of Prisons. In the best-case scenario, families can face open-ended wait times while officials investigate how their loved ones died. In at least 18 states, that process includes locking down the area and treating it as a potential crime scene if the death is suspicious or unexplained. Many states don’t set deadlines for wrapping up the investigation, forcing families to live with uncertainty and compounding grief. In these cases, belongings can be withheld until an investigation closes, a process that can stretch for months. Full text: https://bit.ly/3WY9nmK
Nursing home availability for incarcerated persons granted compassionate release
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS (U.S.) | Online – 28 October 2025 – The question of how to provide appropriate long-term nursing care within or outside of carceral facilities unequipped for nursing home-level services will only grow as incarcerated persons grow older and develop chronic diseases. Although compassionate release allows for the discharge of individuals deemed unlikely to pose a public safety risk and data shows extremely low recidivism rates among elderly parolees, nursing homes remain reluctant to accept these patients. The lack of community placement options not only limits access to needed healthcare services but also undermines compassionate release programs intended to ease prison overcrowding and ultimately ensure humane treatment for those no longer considered a public threat. As a result, a growing number of elderly individuals will continue to remain incarcerated not because they pose a danger to society, but because no nursing home will take them. Full text:https://bit.ly/3JAalm7
Barriers and facilitators in providing palliative and end-of-life care in prison settings… (extract)
JOURNAL OF CORRECTIONAL HEALTH CARE | Online – 7 October 2025 – A significant barrier … was the issue of compassionate release, or early release on compassionate grounds (ERCG) and the difficulty in obtaining it for those who are at the end of life. Findings demonstrate that ERCG is an area of much debate… However, there are concerns within prison authorities about releasing people who purportedly have a very limited prognosis, only for them to outlive all expectations. This study found that in some countries (such as England, Scotland, and Australia) there are significant challenges in applying for and securing compassionate release for people who are dying, where for most people it is not a viable option because it is so difficult to meet the criteria for consideration. This results in most cases being rejected or the application being made very late and not considered before the applicant dies. Download article at: https://bit.ly/4q1FC1K
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Barry R. Ashpole, Ontario, CANADA Biosketch: https://bit.ly/3XMTRs4
Lead photo Source: The Marshall Project https://bit.ly/4fGZXo4
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