SACRAMENTO, CA – California has ceased its court-ordered medical parole program, instead deciding to keep critically ill incarcerated people within the state prison or release them early, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kyle Buis, a California Correctional Health Care Services spokesperson, said the program is “on pause,” and patients will return to in-prison facilities as officials see fit to increase the use of the compassionate release program, which allows incarcerated people to reduce their sentence and re-enter society, adds the Chronicle.
Officials expect about 100 out of the 90,000 people in the California prison system will qualify for compassionate release each year—the state also ended its contract with Golden Legacy Care Center in Sylmar (Los Angeles County) at the end of 2024, the sole nursing home contractor for medical parolees, wrote the Chronicle.
“There were multiple considerations that went into this decision.” – Kyle Buis
“There were multiple considerations that went into this decision,” Buis said, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, “Our growing ability to support those with cognitive impairment inside of our facilities was one factor.”
The program is for those who “suffer from a significant and permanent condition, disease, or syndrome, resulting in the inmate being physically or cognitively debilitated or incapacitated,” according to the state parole board, cited the Chronicle.
Excluding those sentenced to death or life without parole, those who qualify can be placed in a community health care facility instead of a state prison, adds the San Francisco Chronicle.
In 1997, California first attempted to free critically ill people with a process that allowed corrections officials to seek the release of dying prisoners, reported the Chronicle, adding in 2011 the medical parole program was officially created and expanded in 2014 to help reduce prison crowding.
Nearly 300 incarcerated people have been granted medical parole since July 2014, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, adding that although common in states across the country, the medical parole program is used rarely, often due to eligibility requirements.
Thus, the number of people who successfully pass through the program is small, and many are ultimately denied or die before they are considered, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Over the past few years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has built its capacity to provide services to those with severe health issues, including two memory care units in men’s prisons, a 30-bed unit in the California Health Care Facility in Stockton in 2019, and a 35-bed unit in the California Medical Facility in Vacaville in 2023, writes the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla provides 24-hour skilled nursing care for women with life-limiting illnesses, added the Chronicle.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote advocates argue the capacity for in-person services is limited, such as the disproportion between the number of people and services, and how “compassionate” the facilities can be.
Mark Leno, one of the authors of the medical parole law during his time as a Democratic state senator, “criticized prison officials for ending their use of the law without legislative approval and instead terminating the Golden Legacy contract. He also railed against returning very ill patients to prisons to which he called ‘perfectly inhumane,’” reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
