Compassionate Release from Prison

Compassionate release is actually a program in the Federal Prison System and in 36 of the 50 states in the country.  In concept is simple, prisoners that are terminally ill (or in some cases chronically ill) are released from prison before they die so that they can die with family and friends. 

The state benefits because crowded prisons get some relief and the state gets out of some hospice care expenses.  The individual benefits since most prisoners actually do have someone at home that loves and misses them.  

To be considered, someone must petition the warden and/or medical staff in behalf of the prisoner. The decision is ultimately made by the parole board.  To be illegible the prisoner has to be considered not a threat to the community and in some cases states have guidelines on minimum time served and of course some can't leave because of minimum time served rules of their incarceration. In short, because of the law few people are actually illegible.

Who are the most likely candidates for this program.  Those in prison because of possession of an illegal drug but no history of other crimes or violence.  (One wonders why they are in prison in the first place when addiction is a disease, but we will ignore that for now.)  Well, it turns out that only about a thousand prisoners get considered each year and only about 10% of that group gets released.  In short, compassionate release is mostly compassion, not release.

We have a prison system full of an aging population that is on average in much poorer health than the general population.  Most are there from the prison-cures-all disease of the 90's especially with regard to drugs and mandatory minimum sentences. 

Of course, there is a lot of fear from the general population anytime someone is released from prison ... even if that person is going to die soon.  In the decision process, we do not put much value on the life of the prisoner and everyone is afraid of making a mistake in which someone on the outside is hurt or killed by early release even by a dying prisoner.  In my mind, we are disproportionately afraid of these dying prisoners than we are of the gangs that roam our country killing hundreds of people in our major cities every week. Oh yea, I forgot.  These are mostly blacks or hispanics in the slums so they don't count.  The irony of course is that most prisoners would go back to the neighborhoods to die. 

The compassionate release program comes down to a common problem in our country, not all lives are valued equally.  In fact, some lives appear to have little value in our society.