SCI Waymart meets needs of aging incarcerated population by training inmates in hospice care

SCI Waymart meets needs of aging incarcerated population by training inmates in hospice care 
PBS WVIA News, NPR, Pittston, PA; by Lydia McFarlane; 6/8/25 
Nurses and their inmate aides care for hospice patients. Some are bedridden, needing help with eating, changing and using the bathroom. The patients have recently signed do-not-resuscitate (DNR) forms. Some have just a few more months to live. The medium security prison's hospice unit looks like a nursing home. SCI Waymart is one of two prisons, along w ith SCI Laurel Highlands, in the Commonwealth that has a personal care unit. Waymart receives medical transfers from institutions across the state, making its population older than most of Pennsylvania’s state prisons. The average age of a Waymart inmate is 45.5, according to SCI Waymart’s superintendent, Mark Wahl. About 36% of inmates are over the age of 50, and 10% are over 65 out of a total of 1,122 as of April of this year, he said. Wahl said SCI Waymart averages one death per month.