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An inmate who volunteers in the Dodge hospice program helps hospice patient Kaos Metz with a meal in his special cell within the prison infirmary. The white-lace curtains on the window and pastel paint on the walls are meant to soften the experience for the dying inmate, but the heavy metal doors can be locked shut just like any other cell in the infirmary. Hospice patient Kaos Metz was an inmate at the state prison in Oshkosh before he entered the Dodge Correctional Institution hospice in late January. Diagnosed with end-stage liver disease, Metz said last month that he talks to the inmate volunteers in the hospice program about his family and his life before prison, including the factory job he had and the tree-trimming business he ran. Certified nursing assistant Daphne Farr shows inmates how to change the sheets on a patient bed in the infirmary during two days of hospice volunteer training last month at Dodge Correctional Institution. The maximum-security prison in Waupun has offered a hospice program for dying inmates from around the prison system since February 2007. Inmate volunteers provide comfort care for the patients. Correctional officer Dawn Heeringa and volunteer coordinator Sheri Darnick speak to prisoners during hospice volunteer training last month at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. The inmates spent 16 hours in training to be among the 25 or so volunteers needed to provide comfort care for dying inmates in the prison's hospice.
Hospice volunteer/inmate Triru Dillie. Dodge Correctional Institution inmate Triru Dillie, 36, of Milwaukee has volunteered in Dodge's hospice for dying inmates since it opened in February 2007. Dillie said he looks forward to the little rituals he develops with many of his patients ? playing cribbage with one, watching NASCAR with another. Patients often tell him about their families and "things they've been through," Dillie said. Hospice volunteer/inmate Dennis Gordanier. Inmate Dennis Gordanier, 37, of Sheboygan said being a hospice volunteer has changed him. "I respect life more," he said. Hospice coordinator Margie Barnes. Hospice coordinator Margie Barnes said dying inmates need "closure, forgiveness and to make amends" before they pass, though each patient does it in his own way. She counsels inmates who volunteer in the hospice to "meet (patients) where they're at," or to deal with each dying patient in whatever way they are ready for. Nursing supervisor Jim Hebel. Nursing supervisor Jim Hebel said the deepest fear of many prison inmates is that they will die alone behind bars. The hospice program he helped start in the prison infirmary at Dodge Correctional Institution seeks to ensure that never happens.
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