Bereavement Behind Bars: Prison and the Grieving Process; The Prison Service Journal issue 254 – May 2021
…Every prisoner has a right to grieve, but the complexities of incarceration pose a challenge for criminal justice professionals as they strive to meet the needs of offenders without compromising order and security. We have seen how institutional barriers hamper the healthy processing of grief and often dramatically reduce a prisoner’s chances of resolving his losses in a healthy way. These disruptions have significant implications for successful reintegration back into the community, and can manifest as offending behaviours..
…When the normal grieving process is suppressed or delayed, atypical grief reactions arise. ‘Unresolved grief’ is a category of intense, protracted grief that occurs when a person does not complete mourning in a healthy way. It is possible to have incomplete healing from a bereavement just as one might have incomplete healing from a wound. 5..
…Being unable to attend the funeral or pay respects at the chapel of rest can be a major hurdle in coming to terms with the finality of the loss and denies bereaved prisoners a socially acceptable outlet for their grief..
…This intensifies bereavement and adds to the challenges that confront a prisoner upon release. Normal grief symptoms become acute and persistent and begin to interfere with functioning. This can have serious health consequences that present all the characteristics of a disease, with symptoms including sleep disorders, raised blood pressure, heart problems, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation. 61 These patterns can become so fixed that any chance of recovery is remote. The task, then, is to learn how to identify bereavement and facilitate healing during a custodial sentence to reduce the chance of disenfranchised grief…
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