There is a comment highlighted below which, as to any sex offender that may be dieing (excepting death row cases) and is treated differently than any other person as to release, amounts to further punishment. After all, do sex offenders, in prison and dieing, and if released, have some inner ability to heal themselves. Folks, this is absurd vindictiveness by lawmakers or whoever else makes these decisions.
IN RE MEDLEY 3-3-1890 Question: In essence, a death row prisoner was sentenced under laws that permitted certain visistation rights, however, under the new law those rights are to be denied. Excellent example of a violation of ex post facto clause construing those visitation rights denied as further punishment.
8-16-2008 National:
North Carolina and Alabama have joined a growing number of states establishing programs that allow the release of dying or infirm prisoners to cut prison system health care costs.
Alabama's law goes into effect Sept. 1. It will allow inmates who are permanently incapacitated or terminally ill to be furloughed. It will also allow for the release of inmates 55 or older who have life threatening illnesses. About 125 of the state's 25,000 inmates will be eligible, Alabama Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen said.
Inmates considered for parole will be "the frailest of the frail and sickest of the sick," Allen said. North Carolina's legislation took effect June 10. Authorities are still assessing policies and procedures, state prisons system spokesman Keith Acree said.
In both states, inmates convicted of capital offenses and most sex crimes aren't eligible, Allen and Acree said.
A USA TODAY review of state department of corrections' policies found 36 states have some program allowing for the early release of dying or infirm prisoners. Before Alabama and North Carolina, Wyoming was the most recent to add such a program in March. Michigan and Montana added programs in 2007.
Known in some states as medical furlough, humanitarian parole or compassionate release, states with the programs rely on their boards of pardons and paroles to follow up on inmates released for medical reasons, a phone and e-mail survey of states' departments of corrections showed.
The driving force behind medical release of inmates is the rising cost of medical treatment for prison systems, said Ron McCuan, a public health analyst with the National Institute of Corrections, an umbrella agency of the Justice Department.
Alabama figures show terminally ill or infirm inmates cost the system about $60,000-$65,000 per year per inmate, Allen said. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said that by releasing ill or infirm inmates, the costs of their care will be shifted to Medicare, which is funded by the federal government, or Medicaid, which is funded by the state and federal governments.
Allen said inmates would go to stay with relatives or be placed in hospice care or admitted to hospitals depending on their condition and level of care needed.
"Early release of terminal or infirm inmates without a doubt saves tremendous amounts of tax dollars," McCuan said. "The taxpayer simply can't afford to pay exploding end-of-life health care costs."
Victims rights' advocates say furlough programs shift, rather than end, the taxpayer's burden for health care costs.
The Alabama program doesn't make sense financially or from a public safety standpoint, said Miriam Shehane, of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL), a victims rights' group.
Shehane is a driving force in the victims rights' movement in Alabama. Her daughter Quenette, a student at Birmingham-Southern College, was abducted from a convenience store parking lot, then raped and murdered in Birmingham in 1976. Three men were convicted.
No money is really saved, Shehane maintains, because inmate care moves to other government programs.
"This bill is so vague and broad, it's scary," Shehane said. "The release of the inmates is in the sole power of the prisons commissioner. There's no telling who we will have heading the prison system 10 or 15 years down the road. There needs to be more controls in place."
Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, says the procedures followed for the release of terminally ill prisoners should mirror those followed for anyone released.
"It's particularly important that victims be notified that the offender has been released so victims are aware of the release and can take feasible steps to protect themselves."
Riley has insisted victims be included in the process, said press secretary Tara Hutchison.
Among states with furlough programs:
•Wyoming's law, passed in March, went into effect July 1, said Melinda Brazzale, spokeswoman for the prisons system. For a terminally ill inmate to be considered for release, she said, they must have a life expectancy of 12 months or less.
•Ohio prison system officials are looking to change the requirement that terminally ill inmates must have a life expectancy of six months or less before being considered, said Sara Andrews, superintendent of the Adult Parole Authority. A bill pending in the state legislature would broaden that time frame to one year, she said.
• Oklahoma's prison system began medical parole in 2000. Since then about 135 inmates have been released, said Bob Mann, coordinator of clinical social work for the state's prison system.
There have only been "one or two inmates" returned to the prisons who were granted medical parole, Mann said. "Those were offenders of lesser crimes. If I recall, they got involved in drugs once they were released," he said. "Most of the inmates are sent home to die." ..News Source.. by Marty Roney
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