The very first production from the newly minted Oprah Winfrey Network documentary series, Serving Life, is a progressive, moving look at prison rehabilitation.
The volunteer hospice program established in 1977 at Angola prison in Louisiana provides in-house care for prisoners in their final stages of life.
As narrator (and co-producer) Forest Whitaker explains, almost 90 percent of these 5,000 violent offenders will never be released.
Prison Care Ministry
While hundreds of hospice volunteers have signed on with the program since its inception, the film follows for inmates who are in various stages of the job.
It is hard to reconcile the image of these four participants who tend their sick with patience and sensitivity with the reality of their past.
Yet, Justin Granier and Ronald Ratliff never flinch from their misdeeds. Convicted of violent murders, both consider the program to be one more way to pay back their debt to society. They also consider it a fitting tribute to their victims who lost the opportunity to be productive members of the community.
Warden Burl Cain had the same idea when he instigated the program over thirty years ago.
Tending the Sick
Director Cohen is ever mindful of the dignity of the sick - yet she never flinches from showing the harsh reality of hospice care. From personality clashes to squeamishness to preserving the dignity of life, it is all here.
The care providers take care of everything physical problem from chapped lips to preparing a body for burial.
However, the most difficult scenes to watch do not involve bed sores.
The stories that the prisoners share over their regrets for themselves and their victims is effectively tempered with scenes that show how the inmates are now trying to turn negative to positive.
Other Outreach Programs
The quilt ministry is one way that these prisoners are trying to make positive and productive use of their time. A unique and personal quilt is made for the casket of each prisoner who dies in jail.
Many of the prisoners are enrolled in Bible College. Like the hospice program, it is another successful endeavor with a high level of participation and completion.
Whether it is intentional or not, the unspoken theme of the film seems to hint that the abolition of the death penalty is the next step in human evolution.
It is certainly an instigation for more creative solutions to societal problems.
Serving Life will be available for purchase on DVD on January 17, 2012 through Amazon.
Teresa Wentz - Teresa Wentz holds a Master of Media Arts degree from the University of South Carolina. She has worked in various fields in the film ...
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