Every year, people who are incarcerated die in prison, often without the compassionate hospice care that would be expected in other environments. Laura Musselman, Fernando Murillo, and the rest of the team from the Humane Prison Hospice Project are working to change that through an innovative program that trains incarcerated individuals to provide end-of-life care to their peers who are dying.
Dying With Dignity: Compassionate End-of-Life Care in America's Prisons
Dying With Dignity: Compassionate End-of-Life Care in America's Prisons
About Our Guest
Laura Musselman
Following the deaths of both of her parents, Laura Musselman felt compelled to begin work in end-of-life care and left her career in higher education as a college philosophy instructor. Upon her departure from academia, she trained with the International End-of-Life Doula Association (INELDA) as an end-of-life doula and became a hospice volunteer for Hinds Hospice in Fresno, California, in 2018. At Hinds, she took on roles as a patient care volunteer, a home hospice volunteer, and a vigil volunteer; soon, she began training other volunteers to sit vigil for patients, which led to working with the Comfort Care volunteers at the Central California Women’s Facility located in Chowchilla, California.
As a former teacher of ethics, and as a human being, Laura believes deeply in the accessibility of compassionate end-of-life care, and that the right to die with dignity is an essential human right. As such, she is proud and grateful to serve the Humane Prison Hospice Project in this role.
About Our Guest
Fernando Murillo
Fernando Murillo is a San Francisco resident and spent over five years working as a Pastoral Care Support Worker in the only licensed hospice in the California prison system. During his incarceration, Fernando received end-of-life palliative care training from the University of Southern California and the University of California, Davis.
Prior to joining the Humane Prison Hospice Project, Fernando spent over two years as a Program Coordinator with UCSF AMEND, where he supported various projects aimed at reducing the harmful effects of incarceration and changing the culture in prison settings. As part of the AMEND team, he was involved with partnering with the Norwegian correctional system to examine the effect of a more humane carceral setting. Fernando also has been a part of a team that worked in Stafford Creek Correctional Center in Washington State to empower both incarcerated residents and correctional staff to work together to improve quality of life at the prison.
Currently, Fernando is the Program Manager for the Palliative Care Initiative at the Humane Prison Hospice Project, where he trains incarcerated people to provide palliative and hospice care for their aging and dying peers. During Fernando’s 24 years of incarceration, he committed himself to improving the overall quality of life in the correctional setting for everyone present, staff and incarcerated people alike.
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