Edgar Barens’ Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Prison Terminal”, has been viewed in over 60 prisons and 80 educational institutions. His unique talent for turning large-scale issues into personal, deeply humane stories. We’ll explore his mission: documenting a groundbreaking prisoner-run hospice program at Iowa State Penitentiary. Hear how Edgar captures the dignity and compassion within the prison walls, offering hope for reform in a system that too often dehumanizes. Don’t miss this thought-provoking conversation!
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Prison Terminal: Dignity Behind Bars With Filmmaker Edgar Barens
Introduction To Edgar Barens And His Work
Welcome everyone. I’m here with Edgar Barens, who is a director, producer, and cinematographer. He’s an independent documentary filmmaker based in Illinois, whose work focuses on social and criminal justice issues. His most recent film was an Oscar-nominated short documentary. It was entitled Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall. We’re going to learn more about his work and what motivates him as a person and a filmmaker.
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Welcome, Edgar. It’s so good to see you again. We connected through the Prison Families Alliance in 2023 and recently at the Connecting for Justice Conference. It’s always so good to see you and talk to you, and I’m excited to share your work with everyone.
Thank you, Julia. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me to your show. I’m eager to speak with you.
Let’s get started. I always like to start at the beginning. Let’s talk about what got you interested in this work and how did you became a filmmaker.
I don’t want to go back to my childhood, but I have to just for a little bit. My parents are both immigrants from Europe. They came here after World War II and because of that background, my parents were very politically aware of their situation. When they came to the United States, that did not stop. They were always politically active. My brother and I were raised in a very politically active family. My father was an artist, apart from being a railroad engineer. We learned how to question authority, question news, and question sources of information.
Maybe through my mom and my dad, we learned how to also become politically active. We were political activists when we were little. We were doing demonstrations and rallies, anti-war rallies because I’m a kid from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I think that’s what got me politicized. Having my father being a creative source in the family, it was just natural that I took up photography and filmmaking with a Super 8 camera when I was little, which eventually led me to taking film courses when I was in college and becoming a documentary filmmaker. Realizing that “I could be politically active and make films about things that I want to show people or actually things that I change in the world. That’s in a nutshell, how I became an activist when it comes to my filmmaking.
Starting from the beginning helps sometimes because it shows where we came from and how we’re doing what we’re doing. I’ve spoken to other people whose families were politically active and so it was just really natural to them. For those of us who didn’t grow up in that environment, I really admire people who have had that at a young age. Thank you for sharing that. Let’s talk about the Oscar-nominated film, Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall. I’ve seen it twice. I’ll talk more about my view on it because it did help me with my brother who I think people that have listened before know that he passed in prison. Let’s hear more about the documentary. How did that one get started? What prompted you to produce it and create that documentary?
It’s an interesting story. I lived in New York City from 1988 to 2003. One of my many jobs, apart from temping a lot and trying to keep my film work going forward, I was able to get a job at the Open Society Institute, which was a foundation started by George Soros. One of the jobs there, I worked for the Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture. They hired me as a website person because that’s when the web was starting to really take hold. They knew that I was also a documentary filmmaker because I didn’t stop making films.
I made short projects on my own and stuff along the way. I was hired for web design and stuff but I was a filmmaker. While I was at the Open Society Institute, we were getting ready for a conference, and it was the first conference on death and dying in prisons and jails. That was the name of it. It was the first of its kind. We had Sister Helen Prejean set up to be a keynote speaker. What the Open Society wanted to do was make a short film about a program in some prison that was positive, something that was good referring obviously to dying in prisons and jails.
I was sent to Angola prison down in Louisiana. If anything about Angola or prison history, Angola is probably one of the worst prisons in our country. Ironically, they had a very progressive prison hospice program there. It was based on the model from a California medical facility out in Vacaville. This program in Louisiana was probably maybe five years old when I went down there to make this film. I went down there and I stayed there for three weeks and I made a short film about, basically a nuts and bolts film about how to start a prison hospice.
It was supposed to be a short film and it was. It was like 24 minutes long. I was down there for three weeks. I met the gentlemen there who were incarcerated and they were trained as hospice volunteers and I met the staff there. The nursing staff, and the corrections staff. It was an eye-opening experience. It was the first prison I’ve ever been into and I was there for three weeks. I put together a film that once it was done, we showed it at the conference, but we also sent it off to hundreds of prisons around the country because the whole point was to demystify the whole prison’s hospice program and how to show other prisons that this is not rocket science.
This is a program that you clearly need because we are not letting people out of prison when they need to when they’re terminally ill. This is a program that helps bring dignity and compassion to those who are unfortunate enough to be terminally ill behind the walls. I almost think I had PTSD when I left because it was a great opportunity to be in that prison, but also it was mind-boggling. When I finished the film, we sent it out to hundreds of prisons around the country in hopes that they would learn from this short film that these prison hospice programs aren’t rocket science and they are necessary in our system because we seem to punish until the last minute.
We don’t streamline the compassionate commutation process. People really languish and die badly in prison. If there is a prison that has a prison hospice program that incorporates the incarcerated into the care of their fellow incarcerated buddies, so much the better. Long story short, I worked in New York City for the Open Society for quite some time. I made a note when I left Angola thinking that I’m going to revisit this topic because I was only out there for three weeks. While I got to know people fairly well, I didn’t really get to know them that well.
We don't streamline compassionate commutation; people languish and die badly in prison. Programs that bring dignity are needed more than ever. Share on XInspiration For A Prison Hospice Documentary
I thought, “I am going to revisit this issue of prison hospice.” I’m going to try to find a prison where I can stay there for a year or more, follow someone going through the whole dying process, get to know everyone from the staff, the medical staff to the security staff to the incarcerated who are trained as hospice volunteers. See them, become educated hospice volunteers, and film everything I can. Long story short, ten years later, I moved back to Illinois and I started thinking about maybe revisiting this topic on prison hospice. I found a prison fairly close to where I live in Iowa and they had just started their prison hospice program about a year prior.
I went there cold turkey and I said, “Listen, I am a documentary filmmaker and I would love to make a long-term documentary to focus on your program.” The gal I met was Marilyn Sales, who was the director of nursing in the Department of Corrections for Iowa. She says, “It just so happens that we are using your Angola film as a training tool for our incarcerated volunteers.” She was able to convince the warden that it was worthwhile for me to be there and document their program. That’s how I got access to the prison that you see in the prison terminal. I was there for six months.
Although I was given a year to be there, Jack Hall, the person I was following, eventually died within six months of me going into that prison. That’s how that came about. I was allowed to go in and out of the prison. Stupidly or naively, I asked for a cell of my own so I could stay inside the prison for a year. They said no, which in retrospect is probably a good thing. They did give me the basement across the street. The doctors lived in the houses above and they stayed there during the week, during the work week, and they would leave on the weekends.
I was able to set up shop and a little bedroom down in the basement and come and go 24/7 into the penitentiary that was right across the street from the houses. That’s why if you watch the film, my access to everything in that prison was unbelievable. As a filmmaker, I have to pinch myself because I was given access to the entire prison, not only the infirmary but also the cell houses and everything else.
I was able to cobble together a really personal story on not only Jack Hall, who is the patient, but also the guys who were trained in hospice care, who are taking care of him during his last few weeks of life. As well as the staff who were also obviously working in the infirmary and throughout the prison as well. That’s how it came about. Long story short, two dots connecting after ten years. I always loved that story because I didn’t know that we sent a videotape of Angola prison hospice to Iowa, but it came full circle for me.
I’m just in awe. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Like you went in and you just cold-called and said, “Can I do this?” The work that you’ve done in the past like we never know what something we’ve done in the past is going to come up and support us in the future. That is really cool that you got to do that. We’re going to talk more about the documentary and more about the hospice.
Prison is not a happy topic, but we raise awareness, and dying in prison isn’t a good topic. I want to just interject here about my brother who did die in prison from hepatitis C. Back then, they did not have a hospice program. However, the other things I’ve learned over the years after seeing your documentary in 23 is that there are a lot of lifers, people that have life sentences that even though they’re not trained, that do support people that are sick, people that are terminally ill.
I just hope that I’ll get emotional here, that they were there for my brother because dying in prison alone is really difficult, especially during COVID. That was difficult. That’s why I wanted to bring you on and talk about this so people know that there are programs out there. Just like you were saying, you didn’t even know that they saw your first short film in Iowa and that they’re using it, and that people have a voice and they can inquire about this.
In all honesty, Julia, when I first heard when I worked for the Open Society and I was told, “There’s a program down in Louisiana we’d like you to document. It’s called The Prison Hospice.” I was like, “What? What do you mean a prison hospice?” I mean, it never occurred to me. I never thought twice about people dying in prison. Like I said earlier, my mom is from Europe and I would tell my family members in Europe, they would always ask me like, “What documentary are you working on?” I told them, “I’m working on a film about prison hospice.” They’re like, “What do you mean prison hospice?”
“When someone gets terminally ill in prison here in Spain, for example, where my family is, we let them go, they die at home. If they don’t die at home, they die somewhere but outside of prison.” I’m like, “We don’t do that here. I mean, we have a system of compassionate commutation, but it’s riddled with red tape. By the time the paperwork comes back, that person has probably already died. We punished to the last second here. If we can get a prison hospice program in a prison, at least they are guaranteed a dignified and compassionate death, not only with the incarcerated folks who were trained as hospice workers but hopefully their family members who could sit by their bedside.”
It was crazy. For me, it was a new issue totally about prison hospice. That got me going. That’s why I ended up going to Iowa ten years later to do a prison terminal. In a weird way, over the years, I’ve just been the spokesperson for prison hospice. As an independent filmmaker, now that I’m working for a humane prison hospice project out in California, I actually now have like five other people who are on the same page with me and I love working with them. It feels good to be with a group of like-minded people who believe in the same model that needs to be implemented across this country. Even though there are prison hospices in this country, we are lacking so much more. Even though there are numerous prison hospice programs throughout the country, there aren’t enough.
Do you know how many? I think I saw a quote once, how many?
We have 1,800 correctional facilities in the United States. Of those 1,800 facilities, only 70 have a hospice program. Of those 70, only 25 or so are like the model shown in my film where the incarcerated are trained as hospice volunteers. The other ones are noble. I’m not going to downplay them at all. At least they have a hospice program but they don’t incorporate the incarcerated into the care of their fellow human being, their fellow incarcerated friends.
What do you mean by that?
How Prison Hospice Programs Work
In Prison Terminal, you’ll see that Herky, Glove, and Love, these guys are all trained as hospice volunteers. In fact, they took the same course I took myself to prepare myself to make the film. They took the same courses inside prison. What Marilyn Sales did at the Iowa State Penitentiary was she brought in the community hospice from Lee County and they went into the prison and taught the guys everything you needed to know for end-of-life care.
They actually took the same courses I took on the outside. That was a massive benefit for not only the prison because this is all free. This training is offered free by the community hospice of Lee County. Any community hospice in the country would do that and does that for the community, but for them to come into the prison and teach, that was quite a leap. Marilyn, I think she was very smart in bringing in the community because it lowered the wall ever so slightly for that prison in Iowa.
It also connected the community with the people, the human beings inside the prison. I tell you, the two women who came in to teach the men everything there is about palliative care. They said this was by far the best class they’ve ever taught. These guys were hungry to be taught all they needed to know about this because this was for them, it was an opportunity that they would never have had, and would never have dreamed to have actually while being in prison for life. Most of these guys were on life without parole.
You said most of them were life without parole. However, I wonder if any of them actually, when they were released, went into this work.
There was one young guy who was only in for eight years, and he was also trained.
When we say only, does somebody listen in, they’re like, “What?” When you have life, eight years is only, I just, go ahead.
He was fortunate that he only had eight years compared to these guys who, most of the guys I was working with inside the prison, they were in there for 25 years. In fact, Herky, I said, “When did you go into prison?” He says, “I was put in here in 1979. I was like, oh my God, that’s the year I graduated high school. For me to think that Herky has been in prison for 25 years while I was living my life. We live our lives without thinking about it. It’s amazing that 25 years, that’s half his life already. I know I said that this guy was only in for eight years, but he was the only one who did not have a life-without-parole sentence.
When he left prison when he was released, he saw the thing is in Iowa, and every state is different. These guys leave prison with a CNA certificate. They’re trained in ADL work, but none of this stuff was transferable. At the time it wasn’t. Now other states like California, once you’re released, you can actually get a job maybe as a CNA or in some other rehabilitative facility. It’s not like because you’re a felon, you suddenly do the work you were taught to do in prison. I cannot say across the board that that’s happening. At the time when I made the prison terminal, I knew that was not an option for the incarcerated that were coming out of the penitentiaries there.
That makes sense. I was just curious if that was something somebody was doing while they were incarcerated that they’ve been through it and that when they come out, that’s really special give back that they can do when they come back into society.
I can tell you the people that we’re working with within California through the Humane Prison Hospice Project, the guys that are released, they are able to be incorporated now into the job world where they can take their skills. They can get certified and they can plug in, almost hit the ground running because they are not only hospice volunteers, but they’re also ADL workers, and CNAs.
What is ADL?
Assisted Daily Living. On a very low level, but an integral level, they help their patient deal with just the daily tasks we need to do, showering and eating, and bathing. They’re really well-versed. They know their stuff inside and out. A lot of them do hit the ground running. Once they get out in the area, they are able to parlay these skills into a job, which is great, because it’s clearly it’s job training.
If that doesn’t humanize the people who are incarcerated, I don’t know what does, because it takes such a special person to be able to come out or just anywhere and to do that work. Just many thanks to the people out there who are doing that work.
I agree completely. It’s true.
People have to see the documentary if they’re interested in learning more. You’ve spoken about the people in the documentary and a lot of them are people that are incarcerated for life. That even if somebody is incarcerated, they can make the best of their life there, and be the best person they can be, even though it’s a horrible situation. They’re in a situation to give back while they’re incarcerated.
I know, just to segue a second, other people who are incarcerated that actually help other people who are incarcerated who might be sick. I know in one of our Prison Families Alliance meetings, somebody who had been previously incarcerated was at the meeting and talked about one of the lady’s sons that he knew who was still incarcerated that would bring meals to somebody who couldn’t leave their cell because they were sick.
Again, we’re humanizing people. It’s what they did, not who they are. This is really important. In talking about hospice and prisons and the documentary that you made, it was a while ago. I think a lot’s transpired since then, you talked about the group that you’re involved with in California and how there are more hospices and prisons and how we need more. How have you shown the film and how has it grown in the past ten years since it was released?
I have to say, I started the film as an independent filmmaker. I shoot a lot. I love shooting videos. I shoot a lot, I work alone. I was in that prison working alone with no sound person or lighting person. It’s always better to be just a single person in a prison situation because there are less hangups. They know where you are. They don’t necessarily need to know where the rest of your crew is. I always feel like it’s great to be working alone in a prison. When I finished the film, I realized I had amazing access.
While I was filming, I knew I was getting fantastic stories. When I got out of prison, I started cutting some footage together, hoping to get some funding. Sometimes as an independent filmmaker, if you get access, you start shooting and then you worry about funding later. I was away from home for six months. I saved up money to pay all my bills beforehand. When I got out, I started editing the film into little segments to try to get funding. I have to say, I wish this was a positive story, but I did not get funding. I’ve sent it to over 38 funders over the years, and it took me six years to get interest.
That interest, I have to say was just by happenstance again, HBO saw some footage. Someone sent them the footage. I don’t know who sent it. They contacted me and they said, “Listen, we saw some footage. We’d like to talk to you about maybe helping you finish.” I was like, “I will show you some footage.” They came on board. They said, “We’d love to help you finish this film.” I go, “Great. Here’s 400 hours, deal with it.” At that point I was like, I’m just handing over my baby to them because I was so happy that someone eventually saw the worth in this story.
I have to tell you, the people that I worked with at HBO, Jeff Bartz was the editor. He took a look at most of my footage and he’s like, “We’ll definitely edit this.” I overshoot. When I shoot on location, I’m overshooting. He says, like, “I’ve never seen a filmmaker that would shoot a scene where I could actually cut it in three different ways and it would still make sense.” I go, “I do all coverage from all different angles.” They helped me finish the film. It vacillated from being a 90-minute to a 60-minute to a 70-minute to eventually the short film. It turned out to be 39 minutes.
Journey To HBO And Oscar Nomination
They know their stuff because before I had HBO on board, I was editing it myself. I love my footage and because I knew every story behind the footage, I had a six-hour mini-series that no one was going to see on Hospice. When they saw the footage, Jeff just put it together. He didn’t have any emotional connection to all these scenes that I did have. I was watching him put the film together in a way that I would never have done. Not that he was making up stories, but he was able to really condense the story and make the points that I would love, that I felt were necessary to make, but very quickly.
Before we knew it, we had a 40-minute film and I’m like, “It’s so short.” Even though I know that a lot of my best stuff is on the editing room floor, “I loved it.” He goes, “Listen, we were making it under 40 minutes because to compete in the Oscars for the short documentaries film segment, you need to be under 40 minutes.” I’m like, “What?” He goes, “We think it might be Oscar-worthy.” At that point, I’m like, “Keep it under 40 minutes, please.” Long story short, it was nominated for an Oscar, didn’t win the Oscars that year, but it was nominated.
That was also amazing because at the end of the day, not only did I want to humanize this population that’s behind the walls in our country, but I also wanted to get the news out to as many people as possible. Independently, I never finished a film and put it on the shelf and hoped for the best. I was taught from the beginning from my film teacher at Southern Illinois University that once you finish the film, “That’s not it. You just finish it and put it on the shelf. The biggest part comes after you finish the film.
You got to get it out there to show people what the truth is and how you think. You got to distribute it, you gotta show people your film.” Even if HBO hadn’t come on board, I probably would have tried my hardest to get the film out. Now that they were on board, the film was on HBO for two years. Hundreds of thousands of people saw the film and were introduced to the topic that I knew nothing about when I first heard about it. It got the ball rolling. I wish I could say, Julia, because of that there are like so many hospices now in prisons and stuff, but that’s not the case.
I don’t want to leave this on a bad note because I think it’s getting better. The thing is these programs are so fragile. There are so many prisons that actually do know they need programs like this but they’re always they’re all afraid to make the next step. I’m happy to be aligned with the humane prison hospice project in California where they use this film as a teaching tool, but also as a demystifier. When we go into prisons, we show this film and we start seeing prison officials saying like, “We can do that. Why cannot we do that? Why cannot we talk to the church people in town and have them make quilts for the guys who are in the bed or for the women who are passing away?”
They start seeing what’s possible and they start realizing, “It’s not rocket science. We can do this.” It might mean bending some rules like allowing the family to go into the infirmary. That can be done. It’s not impossible. It has been done. It’s been done in San Quentin. It’s not like a, it’s not impossible. The film and our work in the trenches open up people’s minds and make them realize that “This is something that’s totally doable.
It’s going to take some time and it’s not easy, but we have a population who are ready, willing, and able to be trained as hospice volunteers to take care of their ailing buddies. It’s a resource that most prisons have. You have men and women who are incarcerated who are just really chomping at the bit for doing something worthwhile. To also bring redemption to themselves because clearly a lot of them are aware that they did some bad things. They want to give back. This is a great way of getting back.
People are more than their worst mistakes. Prison hospice is one way we can bring compassion and humanity into a broken system. Share on XYou talk about people who are incarcerated. We know that some of the sentencing has gotten longer and longer and that people are serving longer terms, which is a whole other topic. If somebody can do something good, giving and receiving are the same, if they can give. The person that then Zill has that. Again, in the movie, you can really see the love that they have for each other.
The other thing, I don’t know if we mentioned, is that the family was able to be with their loved one. Just a side note, I had permission to go see my brother. However, it was too late. He had passed before I got to go in, but I did have that permission. People out there may not even think that they have the ability to say, “Can I visit my loved one and get special permission?” Again, raising awareness and letting people know and it is possible. Going forward, what are you doing now with that and what are your next plans?
I made a prison terminal ten years ago. It was finished in 2014.
I just throw that out there. It’s timeless.
Thank you for that. I believe I completely agree with you. The truth is the issue is still very important. As I said, only five percent of our prisons have prison hospice programs. There’s a lot of work to be done.
I just want to go back. I wanted to mention this earlier when you said that there are 1800 prisons, that’s federal and state prisons. That doesn’t even include the jails that are out there.
No, it does not. In fact, that’s only state actually. No, you’re right, it is federal. It’s state and federal.
I just wanted to clarify that I meant to do that earlier because there are thousands of other jails and work camps out there. Go ahead. Going forward, what are your next plans?
Future Work And Expanding Prison Hospice
Going forward, like I said, even though the film is ten years old, and I think it is timeless. There’s still a lot of work to be done out there in the trenches and we are still taking the film out. I was just in Ohio last month and I showed it to the women’s prison in Marysville and they actually are on board to start a hospice of their own. They’re getting a building built for the women’s health care and one of the stipulations is a two-bed hospice program for the women and this is something that’s great. I actually, weirdly enough, ten years ago I showed the film at the same prison.
It’s like deja vu a little bit because I was there ten years ago and they said they were going to do a prison hospice. This time around, I think it might work because they’re actually getting a physical place built. My point is that it’s a long haul because these programs are fragile. It depends on a warden who’s progressive and wants to do this. It also depends on if there’s a Marilyn Sales like the gal in my film. You almost need someone who’d be pushing all the time. One of the stipulations, I’m going back to what you said earlier about families being allowed back into the infirmary, that was high on her list.
She goes, “We are not going to have a hospice program without being able to bring the families back into the infirmary. That is not a choice. That is something we are absolutely going to do.” A well-run hospice is holistic in that it not only cares for the patient in that bed and the caretakers, but also for the family members and friends who love the person who’s passing away. That also brings me to the point where you see in my film, hopefully, people will see it.
Jack’s best friend, Schaefer, is also incarcerated. He’s at Jack’s bedside. When I show this film, like at colleges, I always tell the students, “Listen, don’t assume that that’s normal. That Jack’s best friend who’s also incarcerated is sitting next to him in bed in his infirmary room. That is a miracle. For that to happen is not easy. It does involve a lot of Marilyn had to pull a lot of buttons and she was able to do it.”
It’s a long process. It’s absolutely well worth it. Most prisons that have a prison hospice project, it’s a win-win situation for them. They never look back. It’s done nothing but positive. It’s brought nothing but positive vibrations to the entire prison, not only the infirmary but even the yard. It changes the prison. I’m not saying overnight or it flips it 180 degrees, but there’s a sense of humanity in a prison that has a hospice program. That’s the light. That is the light inside the prison is that program.
A well-run hospice in prison brings dignity, hope, and compassion, providing a human light in an otherwise dark space. Share on XWe’ll be showing the documentary online at one of the prison families alliance meetings. I just think I give you so much credit because you hadn’t been through it. You didn’t have somebody that was incarcerated. You didn’t have somebody that was terminally ill in prison and you saw this and took action. That’s how we change the world. That’s how we create more compassion. That’s how things move forward in this world to make our world better.
I just really appreciate everything that you’ve done. I know that you have a few other documentaries that you’ve done. We don’t have time to talk about them all here, but you have definitely started even when you did your own documentaries before this for families, a sentence of their own. Even though it was a while ago, it just seems like things have not changed and you go through a family’s journey. That’s a sentence of their own. I do want to touch on that real quick without going through the whole documentary that you created.
It was following a family who had a loved one who was incarcerated. You’ve kept in touch with them. Here’s somebody who was affected. Their loved one husband, I believe went to prison and they were a middle-class family and they wound up under underserved, had to move into a trailer and the woman had a couple of sons. Their life drastically changed. Where are they now? This shows hope, that they were in that situation you show, Just how we’re affected when a loved one is incarcerated and how it affects the family. However, there’s hope. Where are they now?
That family, I actually followed that family for two summers. I was also making this film for the Open Society Institute after I finished the Angola film on their prison hospice. I realized like, “We need to do something about the families.” There are families that are just from New York City, these bunch of families would take a bus all upstate. I’m like, “I’d love to do a film about these families.” I made this film, A Sentence of Their Own. I found this family. I actually was focusing on three families, but this one family I focused on was their story that encompassed a lot of these issues. They fell through the cracks. He was the breadwinner, and when he committed his crime, he was put in prison. He was put in prison, rightfully so. He admitted to his crime and he was in prison. That sent the family on the outside into a tailspin.
The hidden sentence, that’s how we call it.
The hidden sentence, absolutely. Becky and her two boys basically had to go to Georgia and live under the radar in a trailer park that had no inspections at the trailer park. It was a bad situation. It was even worse than you saw in the film actually, but she was resilient and Becky was resilient. She taught her boys to be resilient. She helped her neighbors. It’s a beautiful story. I fell in love with the entire family. Like you said, I do stay in touch with people. I don’t just go in there, exploit their life, and then leave and never give them updates about what the film’s doing. That film, even though it was shot quite some time ago, I think in 2002, you’re right.
The story is it still hasn’t changed for a lot of families. I’m happy to tell you that Becky and her boys, obviously her boys are in their 20s now. The youngest, Josh, is married and has a couple of kids. Becky has a partner. She eventually divorced Alan, who is in prison. It was a mutual divorce. She needed help. She couldn’t wait for him to get out. She found another partner to be with. She is living her life. She’s probably middle class, I suppose you’d say. She bounced back. Alan is still a part of the boy’s life. She’s doing well, but I have to say, it was very touch-and-go for her because basically, survived.
Impact On Families Of Incarcerated Loved Ones
It’s interesting because really the gist of it is that we are affected financially and emotionally, and maybe we don’t have to move to a trailer, but our life does change because we have to re-budget. For me, I had to fly to see my brother. I had to rent a hotel and a car. There was some financial impact. Everybody has that. There’s the shame. There’s the stigma. There’s how do you tell your children and how do you deal with it? How do you visit? There are so many decisions that are made. I think if you look at it as a whole as to how the families are affected, that it’s similar for everybody.
Just thank you for the work that you do and the caring because you haven’t been through a lot of this personally. However, meeting people, seeing people, wanting to make a difference, you really have. I thank you for your time. Also, I have a documentary in mind. Let’s talk about that. If there’s anybody out there that wants to sponsor a documentary, just reach out to Edgar or me and I think we really need something to prepare families for a visit. I would love to work with you. We’ll talk about that. Edgar, if people want to learn more about your work, do you have an email or a website that they can go to?
I would suggest that they go to the PrisonTerminal.Com. That’s my website. I mean, I checked that website. They can contact me through that website. I would love to hear from people. Hopefully, when they see the film and they give me any feedback, that would be wonderful. If they have opportunities to show the film somewhere at their community center or community hospice, or maybe at a university or college or their church group, I am always up for showing the film everywhere and anywhere. I want to throw that invitation out there as well. Thank you, Julia, for inviting me to your show. I’m honored that you found my work compelling and that we were able to talk about our life experiences together.
There are people that are reading that have a loved one that’s incarcerated and people do worry about when their loved one is sick or something happens and especially for people out there who have loved ones that have these long sentences, that there is hope that they can be helped.
How To Support Prison Hospice Efforts
The organization I work for, it’s a nonprofit organization based in California. It’s called HumanePrisonHospiceProject.Org If you visit that website, you will see what the work we’re doing in California. We’re also branching out into the States of Oregon, Washington, possibly Michigan, hopefully, Ohio, and my home state of Illinois. You’re right, Julia, people who don’t have someone in prison, never think twice about how people are dying in prison but those who have loved ones there, need to know that this is a possibility for the prison that their loved one is in.
If anyone wants to contact us and also say, “Listen, my husband or my wife is at such and such prison, is there a way we can get a hospice program there?” We’ll circle back and talk to that person and figure out how we can do it. In Humane, what we do, we capitalize on the local community hospice near that prison to start the prison hospice in that prison. We capitalize on local facilities to help us set up a hospice in that prison. If you have a loved one in prison and you think the hospice program is necessary, do not hesitate to contact us at HumanePrisonHospiceProject.Org
HumanePrisonHospiceProject.Org or PrisonTerminal.Com. You could always reach out to PrisonTheHiddenSentence.Com. Edgar, thank you so much and we’ll continue our conversation.
Thank you, Julia. It was a pleasure.
Important Links
- Edgar Barens
- Humane Prison Hospice Project
- Prison The Hidden Sentence
- Prisoners Family Conference
- Prison Families Alliance
About Edgar Barens
As a documentary filmmaker, Edgar has a notable record of successful production in very stressful prison environments. His Academy Award-nominated (2014) documentary, Prison Terminal, has screened in more than 60 prisons and at more than 80 colleges, universities, and community centers.
Edgar takes great satisfaction in his ability to tackle large-scale problems within the American criminal justice system and present them on a very personal level so that the destructive impact of a dysfunctional correctional system can be made more palpable to the viewer.
He took on the mission to document one of the few positive programs behind bars that exists today in the hope that other facilities will emulate Iowa State Penitentiary’s prisoner-run hospice program and instill much-needed dignity to dying in prison for all concerned.
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