Stunned silence enveloped the Harper Auditorium Apr. 1 following the closing credits of Edgar Barens’ Oscar-nominated documentary “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall.”
The film tells the story of Jack Hall’s final days, an elderly inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary in prison for murder.
The focus is not only on the story of Hall, but on the hospice care system within the penitentiary. Other inmates in the prison are trained as caregivers and take care of elderly prisoners needing hospice care in their final days.
“Of 1800 prisons in the country, 75 have hospice and only 20 have other inmates taking care of them,” said Barens.
The 40-minute documentary was nominated this year for an Academy Award in the category of Documentary Short Subject. Although the film did not take home the Oscar, Barens was overjoyed for the exposure it brought to the film. The press that came from the Academy Award nomination allowed more people to see it and brought light to the situation of prison hospices.
Barens said the film has started the conversation he was hoping for, “but we are truly at the very beginning of a long voyage to get these prison hospices mandated/legislated into each prison that could logistically have one behind their walls.”
Following the screening of the documentary was a panel discussion with Barens, Joanie Kush, vice president of Visiting Nurse Associations Hospice, and Dr. Helen Chapple, assistant professor and member of Creighton’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics.
“Thank you for making me cry tonight,” an audience member said in response to the film.
The audience asked questions about Barens’ experience within the Iowa State Penitentiary, the growing number of elderly inmates needing end of life care and current hospice systems in prisons today.
Barens told the audience this was not his first experience with a penitentiary hospice system. He spent some time with the Open Society Institute in the 1990’s and made a short film shot over 2 weeks about the Angola Prison hospice system. What began as an assignment through OSI sparked Barens’ further interest in the issue and he wanted to do a more extensive project.
Coincidentally, when Barens arrived at the Iowa State Penitentiary to begin work on “Prison Terminal,” he found out that the hospice trainees had watched his previous film about the Angola Prison as part of their education process.
Though he is currently a media specialist at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Barens is about to embark on a tour with the film. He will present the film to 50 prisons in 100 days, and hopes to show that hospice care systems are an important aspect of prison life.
“I made this film in order to jumpstart more prison hospices,” Barens said.
Panel participant Dr. Helen Chapple spoke of prisoners as part of a vulnerable society because they are often dehumanized. Being a caregiver, especially for those inmates who are serving life-in-prison sentences, is a way for them to give back to their fellow inmates and to also hopefully count on the same care at the end of their own lives in prison.
“People have to find a way to make their life in prison,” she said during the panel discussion.
According to Barens, the “point of this film was to humanize this society.”
Arts and Sciences junior Kelsey Ribordy attended the film screening.
“I thought it [the film] was very moving because nothing was being censored and it was very raw,” she said. “He [Barens] was very inspiring.”
Ribordy closed the discussion panel with the final question of the evening.
“As Creighton students, since we push social justice, how can we break the molds?” she asked.
Barens replied by saying that being aware of social justice and knowing that there are “wrongs to be made right” in the world is the first part of the process.
“Find a passion and something you really want to pursue,” he said. “Pursue it and throw your whole heart into it.”