Meeting Videos

ARCH Network Meetings

ARCH Meetings are designed to introduce or review new topics relevant to ARCH Network members. Topics discussed focus on critical elements in the conduct of clinical research based in correctional facilities. The meetings also give ARCH Network Grant Award Recipients an opportunity to present a Works in Progress and get feedback and ideas from ARCH Network members – allowing for senior researchers to help guide newer investigators in the area and for junior investigators to learn more about conducting critical and ethical research in criminal justice and health. 

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This session includes a presentation by the team from the Humane Prison Hospice Project who are developing a humanitarian, cost-effective, and restorative justice solution to ensure that those aging and dying in prison receive compassionate care. 

Humane Prison Hospice Project is a California-based non-profit who works to transform the way incarcerated people die though education, advocacy, and training fellow incarcerated peers as compassionate end-of-life caregivers and grief companions.In 2023, Humane trained 39 incarcerated people to provide compassionate end-of-life care and grief companionship for their peers at two prisons, presented our work to leaders and stakeholders nationally and internationally, and secured seed funding to explore expanding housing and care options for terminally ill incarcerated people who qualify for compassionate release. In 2024, the Humane team plans to train cohorts of end-of-life peer caregivers at three additional California prisons, offer ongoing continuing education and grief support to our current peer caregivers, develop a model to scale our training in other states, share our work both virtually and in-person, and expand efforts that support compassionate release.

Lisa Deal is a registered nurse and public health advocate who has had a passion for being with the dying since her work as a community health nurse caring for AIDS patients in Boston during the late 1980s. With a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in public health, Lisa spent several years working as a clinician, a research associate, a policy analyst/editor, grants officer, and hospice executive before taking the role of Executive Director for Humane Prison Hospice Project. As Executive Director, Lisa focuses on strategic planning, fundraising, program management, and supporting the stellar Humane Team as together they seek to ensure that those dying in prison receive compassionate end-of-life care.

Fernando Murillo is a program manager at the Humane Prison Hospice Project. He is justice involved. He was incarcerated for approximately 24 years. While incarcerated, Fernando worked in the only license hospice in the California prison system for approximately five years. He received extensive training in end of life palliative care from both the University of Southern California and UC Davis. Humane Prison Hospice Project has a focus of training incarcerated residents to provide end of life palliative care in the carceral setting. To date Fernando and his team have trained two Cohorts: 1. At a California medical facility in which they have trained approximately 12 incarcerated residents 2. A cohort at a California correctional women’s facility in which we have trained 27 incarcerated residents. They currently have a 15-module curriculum. Once their training is completed, participants are proficient in working in a multidisciplinary team, side-by-side with correctional staff and administerinend of life palliative care.

This session includes:

1. WIP Discussion with Lisa Barry, PhD, MPH | Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Center on Aging - UCONN Health
   1. ARCH Pilot: “Assessing Geriatric conditions as novel risk factors for dropout among those seeking treatment for Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) in mid-to-late life: The role of incarceration history”
2. Presentation: “Translating Research into Policy: A Look at California’s Committee on Revision of the Penal Code” with Molly Pickard, Research Manager - California Policy Lab 

Dr. Bedard spoke with the ARCH Network about the well-documented phenomenon that describes the aging of the population currently held in U.S. state and federal prisons and its manifestation and challenges to accessing and receiving healthcare within the correctional system in the U.S.

Daniel Landsman of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) offered guidance on how to write compelling, persuasive briefs and papers for legislators and committees.

On September 1, 2022, Jessica Phillips of UCSF's Human Research Protection Program and Dr. Jacqueline Tulsky provided an overview to ARCH Network Members on Prepping for An Effective Prison-Related IRB.

On April 25, 2022, Dr. Shira Shavit spoke to ARCH Network Members about "Transitions Clinic Network (TCN) and the Importance of Healthcare for Older Adults who are Involved in the Criminal Legal System."

On April 25, 2022, Drs. Lisa Barry and Stephanie Grace Prost spoke to ARCH Network Members about "Assessing Cognitive and Functional Impairment in Carceral Research."

Launch of the ARCH Network