Funeral Attendance during Incarceration: Inequitable Access and Conditional Humanity

Background

Funerals help individuals and families process grief by bringing social support networks into close contact with the bereaved. Funerals provide social validation for the bereaved by enabling demonstrations of grief reactions in a public forum.

Prior studies have identified that within carceral settings, grief is often blocked or delayed for bereaved prisoners. Temporarily leaving prison to attend a funeral can offer incarcerated individuals reprieve from an environment in which they otherwise cannot process their grief. However, funeral attendance is infrequently accessible to incarcerated individuals.

This study explores funeral attendance access and experiences within a sample of individuals sentenced to life or long prison sentences as children.

Methods

Data for this cross-sectional qualitative study were derived from one-time semi-structured interviews with 46 participants who had been incarcerated for at least 10 consecutive years starting when they were 17 or younger. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded using NVivo to conduct a thematic analysis, combining open, selected, and axial coding. Researchers used thematic analysis to examine emergent themes pertaining to funeral attendance.

Findings

Though funerals are beneficial for grief processing, this study identified how funeral attendance is a privilege not often afforded to individuals within carceral settings. Among the key themes within this study are: setting determining access, costs of attendance, and at the mercy of others’ humanity. The theme, “setting determining access,” addresses the policies that decide if funeral attendance is an option for prisoners. These policies varied depending on type (regional jail, state prison, private prison, or federal prison) and location (particularly state) of the facility. The second theme, “costs of attendance,” emphasized the financial commitment incarcerated individuals had to make to attend a funeral. The cost of transportation and supervision, typically a couple of police officers, is paid for by the incarcerated individual. These costs create inequity in access to funeral attendance within facilities that adhere to policies favoring funeral attendance. The final theme, "at the mercy of others’ humanity," underscores the differences in funeral experiences when officials demonstrate compassion rather than deny basic dignity. The depth of empathy and compassion offered by supervising officers to one participant enabled her to blend into the setting and grieve alongside her family during a funeral. In contrast, another participant who was denied basic dignity during his attendance at his mother's funeral described himself as looking like Charles Manson while giving a eulogy in an orange jumpsuit and shackles. His story of attending his mother’s funeral is one of isolation.

Conclusions and Implications

Funerals support grief processing and family functioning following a death, yet incarcerated individuals face inequitable access to this beneficial ritual. Inconsistent policies, financial means, and compassion from officials determine whether an individual may access a supportive funeral experience. These inequities must be addressed by enforcing a policy requiring access for the bereaved to attend funeral services in humane, caring ways. Additionally, programming focused on defraying the cost of transportation and supervision will help alleviate the financial burden of funeral attendance.