Loss, Dying and Bereavement in the Criminal Justice System

Sue Read, Sotirios Santatzoglou, Anthony Wrigley, Sue Read, Sotirios Santatzoglou, Anthony Wrigley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351981248
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Death in Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Life is characterised by movement, change and development, including transitions, losses and grief. People experiencing loss must learn to accommodate it and, sometimes, relearn new roles. Whether the offender is accommodating general loss (such as transition), the loss of others or facing their own impending death, the bereavement process can become a particularly complicated experience for those involved in the criminal justice system.

Criminal offenders may be excluded from participating in grief rituals and may receive few explicit opportunities to talk about a loss they've experienced, sometimes resulting in disenfranchised grief. Informing thinking around assessment, care, and support procedures, this volume seeks to bring together a range of perspectives from different disciplines on crucial issues surrounding the impact of loss, death, dying and bereavement for criminal offenders. The book will explore inherent challenges and responses to the criminal justice system by considering to what extent offenders' loss, death, dying and bereavement experiences have been - or should be - recognised in policy and practice. The first section considers theoretical approaches to loss; the next section translates these issues using professional perspectives to explore practical applications; and the final section introduces an offender perspective.

Through identifying challenges and consolidating evidence, this multidisciplinary book will interest researchers interested in loss and bereavement in vulnerable communities, concepts of disenfranchised grief, end-of-life care and mental healthcare in the criminal justice system.

Section 1
Appreciating dimensions of loss, death, dying and bereavement

1
Death, social losses and the continuum of disenfranchised grief for prisoners

Sue Read and Sotirios Santatzoglou

Introduction

Death never occurs in a vacuum but within a social context, the nature of which can influence greatly how the person deals with that loss, or how individuals cope when confronted with the inevitability of the end of their lives, and how others accommodate the death of their friend or family member (Read, 2006). Particular social contexts can have a huge impact on how the experience is lived, where individuals receive their support, when they can expect care and support and indeed who they receive this care and support from.

Whilst death is a tangible loss, and for the most part the most difficult of losses to accommodate, people experience many other losses throughout their lives that can feel equally painful, but may be less tangible or visible, and subsequently not be as easily acknowledged or openly, constructively and consistently supported (Read, 2014). Life is characterised by movement and change and therefore by its very nature, by transitions, losses and grief (Thompson, 2002). Oswin poignantly reminds us of the importance of loss when she described how ‘it sometimes seems as if all our lives we are trying to cope with loss – either the fear of it, or the memory of it or its raw immediate presence’ (Oswin, 1991: 15). Subsequently loss remains omnipresent (Read, 2011).

There are many different types of loss. Schultz and Harris (2011) describe these losses as either being common (such as losses experienced through growing up and growing old), uncommon (such as abandonment, abuse, migration and violent death) or non-finite. The latter is described as a continuing presence of the loss, which, because it may not necessarily involve death, may go unrecognised and thus be difficult to articulate and explain. Machin (2009) identifies three distinct types of loss: developmental, which occur across the life course; circumstantial, unpredictable loss, incorporating changes in relationships, ill health and disability and death; and invisible grief and undervalued people, where marginalised communities rarely receive the support they need following a loss (Machin, 2009). Arguably, this invisible loss is particularly evident in the marginalised community of prisoners and offenders in general, and remains an under-researched issue (Vaswani, 2014). As Olson and McEwen indicate, ‘Very little information can be found in the literature on bereaved prisoners, and it appears that their grief may not be of great concern to others’ (2004: 226).

This chapter will consider the experience of loss and bereavement within the community of prisoners, which is based on papers related to bereavement care in prison. The chapter is also informed by the stories and views of professionals, which were collected during a small-scale qualitative research study.¹ The overarching aim of this research study was to explore existing bereavement support mechanisms with respect to offenders. The study involved focus groups and interviews with professionals, such as prison bereavement counsellors, community palliative care professionals, prison nurses, hospice workers and a prison chaplain.

The bereaved prisoner and the types of losses

Schetky’s paper (1998), titled ‘Mourning in Prison: Mission Impossible?’ provided an early account about types of losses within a prison setting. Her account considered five groups of losses reflecting her learning experiences from the implementation of a support group scheme. Schetky’s account did not distinguish between death and other losses, but primarily between incarceration-associated and non-incarceration-associated losses. The former were distinguished into two groups: (a) the loss of contact with ‘children and loved ones’, which was discussed first, and (b) the loss of self-esteem, professional identity, choice of medical care and material possessions, which were addressed second. With respect to the loss of contact, Schetky explained that

men lost contact with children and, in some cases, had their parental rights terminated… [whilst] [s]ome lost all contact with siblings with whom they had once been close and had no knowledge of family of their whereabouts.

(Schetky, 1998: 386)

Loss of contact could also include the difficulty in receiving news about ‘terminally ill relatives’. As Schetky indicated, some of the inmates ‘described the frustration of trying to get through to them on the prison phone system’ whilst others ‘described their anguish at being informed of the deaths of loved ones only after their funerals’ (Schetky, 1998: 386). Schetky also considered losses which had ‘occurred in the course of the group and included transfers of inmates, absences of the co-facilitators due to vacations or professional meetings, deaths or terminal illness in family members, moves by family members, and the deaths of several inmates’ (1998: 386). Some of these losses, such as ‘the transfers or the deaths of several inmates’, should be seen as incarceration-associated losses. The consideration of similar incarceration-associated losses were addressed in further papers, such as Bolger’s (2005), on dying in prison and the palliative care challenges therein, or Hendry’s (2009) review of bereavement and prison nursing papers from 1998 to 2007. Bolger (2005) and Hendry (2009), both pointed to the ‘obvious’ forms of loss arising from incarceration, such as ‘loss of liberty, loss of family contacts and loss of life years’ (Hendry, 2009: 271; Bolger, 2005: 619). Hendry also listed the loss of ‘material possessions, heterosexual contact, privacy, personal autonomy and personal security’ as ‘identified losses of prison life’ (Hendry, 2009: 272).²

With respect to losses which did not arise due to incarceration as they were concerned with other life phases, Schetky considered ‘[c]hildhood losses and abuse’. Schetky indicated that these losses ‘were common’ amongst the group of inmates and she addressed them after the first group of incarceration-associated losses, the loss of contact with ‘children and loved ones’. Schetky mentioned the experience of one inmate who ‘was dealing with his adoption and reconciliation with his birth mother’ (Schetky, 1998: 386). A further group of losses was the loss of ‘a child through death, adoption, or alienation’. Schetky did not clarify whether these were experiences before or during incarceration but said that this loss ‘was shared by several members’ of the group, who had ‘noted that the hurt never leaves and how much harder it is to deal with the loss of a child’ (Schetky, 1998: 386). Therefore, Schetky’s account did not distinguish between death and other losses, but primarily between incarceration-associated and non-incarceration-associated losses.

Further ways of listing types of losses can be found in other papers concerning children and young people in custody, such as the report of the Childhood Bereavement Network (CBN), which considered only the experience of death (and no other losses) by children and young people before they came into custody, as well as ‘while they are there’ (CBN, 2008). In relation to the period before custody, the report referred to ‘deaths of parents, siblings, grandparents, extended family members, partners, friends and children’ (CBN, 2008: 1). Regarding the deaths of grandparents, the report indicated that ‘their death is likely to be very significant,’ when they had ‘been involved in caring for a young person or providing rare stability’ (CBN, 2008: 1). Furthermore, the report indicated the ‘small number of cases’ where the deaths, which were ‘very significant in the young person’s life such as a partner or friend’, had resulted from young people’s ‘own offences’ (CBN, 2008: 1). With respect to the period in custody, the report stated that the deaths concerned ‘both staff members and peers’ (CBN, 2008: 1). In a further account also concerning young male inmates in England and Wales and their death bereavement experiences, Vaswani distinguished between multiple ‘substantial’ and ‘recent’ bereavements (rather than before or during custody) (2014: 345). Vaswani further categorised these bereavements into two types: ‘traumatic’ bereavements, which were ‘caused by overdose, accident, murder or suicide, regardless of the participant’s experience of that bereavement’; and ‘parental’, which were caused by the death of a ‘biological parent, step-parent or main carer’ (2014: 345). Therefore, these accounts pointed out the significance of death and bereavement experiences in the lives of young inmates in England and Wales.

Importantly, in a subsequent article, titled ‘A Catalogue of Losses’, Vaswani (2015) considered an overarching typology of losses beyond the experience of death bereavements for young men in custody. The typology included loss of future; loss of relationships; loss of status, in particular the loss of power and agency that can arise from the need to assimilate into prison culture; and loss of stability – often due to a disrupted and troubled childhood. The overarching typology of losses reflected Vaswani’s interest in the significance of life ‘uncertainties’ experienced amongst young people involved in offending, such as ‘family breakdown, abuse and neglect, and periods in placements away from home’ (2015). Vaswani indicated that ‘each of these can be experienced as a devastating loss’ which ‘many young people in prison… carry with them’ (2015). Notably, Vaswani’s latter account made a bold distinction between death and other losses in order to signify their importance. This raises the issue as to whether there is actually a hierarchy of losses and whether some losses are more important than others in the lives of prisoners.

Hierarchy of losses and disenfranchised grief

In her paper, ‘A Catalogue of Losses’, Vaswani criticised that ‘most studies of loss tend to focus predominantly on loss through death’ (2015: 28). Indeed, grief experiences of prisoners arising from death are central in a wide number of papers which address specific death-related losses only. For example, Harner et al. stated that ‘[o]ur study aim was to describe the experience of losing a loved one through death while incarcerated’ (2011: 454). Ferszt examined ‘the experience of three women who suffered the death of a significant person’ whilst in prison (Ferszt, 2002). Wilson’s study focused on a variety of death experiences, such as

deaths from war and political unrest; death of children…; suicide…;… limited/restricted attendance at funeral rituals due to imprisonment, and unprompted discussions about sensing a presence of the deceased.

(2011: 13)

Finally, Taylor studied the chaplains’ efforts to manage the bereavement experiences of prisoners arising from ‘four uniquely difficult deaths: murder, suicide, death of the parental figure, death of a child’ (2012: 40). Arguably, these papers have implicitly defined the meaning of loss or, in other words, have implicitly set death, and more specifically death of relatives, as the primary focus.

The focus on death experiences does not necessarily reflect a lack of recognition of the existence of other social losses involved in the life stories of inmates. A number of papers refer to those losses. However, they still divert the focus to the death experiences singularly. For example, Olson and McEwen indicated that ‘[m]any prison inmates have experienced significant losses prior to as well as during their incarceration’ and referred to the ‘loss of possessions, jobs, control, freedom, relationships, childhood, spirituality, and dreams and goals’ (2004: 226). However, their paper did not address them any further, as the focus was on the experience of ‘four grief counselling groups’ and how their members dealt with the ‘reality of the deaths’ (Olson & McEwen, 2004: 226). Similarly, Wilson also recognised that emotions of loss ‘are not only associated with death but can be triggered [by] many other significant, non-death related losses… such as loss of stability through a dysfunctional family situation or being placed in care’ and so on (2010: 10). However, the grieving project in prison, which was the paper’s subject, was about death only (Wilson, 2010). The overwhelming majority of the studies place their focus on death, regardless of the recognition or not about the existence of social losses in the lives of prisoners.

The same pattern was also seen in the accounts of the interviewees of this qualitative small-scale research on bereavement care and criminal justice (see endnote 1), where bereavement experiences of prisoners arising from death-related losses of persons close to them were also central in the accounts of the practitioners-interviewees. For example, the stories of the bereavement counsellors (BC) were concerned with a prisoner whose ‘mum had died… and came to terms with his mother’s death’; ‘a prisoner who was responsible for the death of his partner’ (BC 1); ‘somebody who lost an eight-year-old brother, but he to all intents and purposes was the carer for this little brother as well’ (BC 2); and ‘a grandparent’s death’ (BC 2). BC 2 further indicated that death of a child is ‘one of the most difficult areas… it is indeed extremely difficult when you’re dealing with somebody who’s lost a child and they themselves are in prison,’ indicating (through a story) that ‘the younger they are, the more helpless they feel.’ Death was also central in the interview with the chaplain, who indicated that ‘as a chaplain, you can get as a reputation being the Angel of Death,’ as the chaplain deals with ‘receiving information of the death of a relative’ and processing this to the prisoner. The BCs indicated the ‘chaotic lives’ of the bereaved prisoners, and agreed that their condition of being ‘left abandoned when they’re in prison’, or simply ‘being incarcerated’, ‘in essence, it sort of mirrors bereavement.’ Nevertheless, the ‘chaotic’ life histories of the prisoners were not seen as embodying losses, namely social losses. It was only in one instance, of a bereaved prisoner who was a former vicar, that BC 1 stressed that ‘[h]e was abandoned by the Church… and that was a huge loss,’ therefore linking the concepts of loss and bereavement to social losses. Remarkably, the chaplain-interviewee indicated that

loss for me is not just about loss of… you know, bereavement through death, it’s loss through abuse, loss through a whole variety of issues… and people have really struggled because things have happened, especially if there have been breakdowns in the relationships and they’ve lost the contact with the father or the mother or whatever it is, you know. So I don’t narrow it down to death.

Nevertheless, the chaplain still observed that

sometimes with loss the thing can be recouped, it can be in some way brought back, whereas with death, that’s not gonna be a possibility… So, with loss I think you can ...