California welcomed the New Year with 725 new laws. One was Assembly Bill 1399, the California Medical Parole Bill. It allows medical parole for terminally ill inmates. The bill was authored by State Sen. Mark Leno and sponsored by J. Clark Kelso, the Prison Health Care Receiver appointed by federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson.
California is looking for ways to slash $800 million from the Prison Health Services Department’s $2 billion budget. Medical parole would apply to inmates in state prisons with permanent disabilities and whose release would not pose a threat to public safety.
Medical paroles are prohibited for inmates sentenced to death, life without the possibility of parole, or Three-Strikers. Terminally ill inmates sentenced to life with the possibility of parole may be considered for medical parole. It has been estimated that approximately 700 state inmates would qualify for consideration for medical parole.
The state’s prison health system has identified 21 inmates whose average annual health care cost more than $1.97 million each.
That is nearly $41.5 million a year for 21 prisoners.
Inmates released on medical parole would shift the cost of their health care from the state to the federal government.
California already allows dying inmates to apply for compassionate release, also known as medical parole, although few are actually released prior to their deaths.
Penal Code 1170 (e), (2)(A)(B)(C) gives courts the discretion to resentence or recall if they find (1) the prisoner is terminally ill with an incurable condition caused by an illness or disease that would cause death within six months; (2) the conditions of release or treatment do not pose a threat to public safety; (3) the prisoner is permanently medically incapacitated with a medical condition that renders him or her permanently unable to perform activities of basic daily living, and result in requiring 24-hour total care.
