Grace Before Dying is a photo exhibit that looks at how, through hospice, inmates assert and affirm their humanity in an environment designed to isolate and punish. (h/t Just Seeds Blog).

From the introduction of the exhibit’s website:

A life sentence in Louisiana means life. More than 85% of the 5,100 inmates imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola are expected to die there. Until the hospice program was created in 1998, prisoners died mostly alone in the prison hospital. Their bodies were buried in shoddy boxes in numbered graves at the prison cemetery. But the nationally recognized program, run by one staff nurse and a team of inmate volunteers, has changed that.

I don’t have anything to say except that I was profoundly moved by these two images. They show the humanity of those behind bars both the dying and those who are giving care while bearing witness.

You can view other photographs here.