Mourning in prison: mission impossible?

Abstract

The author's interest in the issue of mourning in prison is twofold. As an active hospice volunteer, she became involved with bereavement work, which sensitized her to the issues of loss encountered upon joining the staff at the Maine State Prison. More often than not, the inmates with whom she met had unresolved issues of loss. The impetus for a grief support group came from an inmate who had experienced the death of five relatives during his period of incarceration; he commented on how difficult it is to mourn in prison, and he worried about how he would deal with all his losses when confronted with them upon his release. The author raised the possibility of a support group and the inmate offered to help organize it. This article describes the author's experience with such a prison-based support group and what she has learned, through this experience, about mourning in prison.