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Compassionate Release from New York State Prisons: Why are So Few Getting Out?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

John A. Beck
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Extract

It is inevitable that some inmates in large state prison systems will suffer from terminal conditions and die while incarcerated. But how those inmates experience that event is primarily controlled by correctional policies and by the prison medical and correctional staff assigned to their care. Compassion for inmates who are dying cannot be legislated or mandated, but humane and compassionate care for the dying can be facilitated or thwarted by legislative and correctional policies, and by the manner in which correctional personnel interpret those policies.

Death in New York State prisons is a frequent event, occurring at a rate substantially higher than that in most other states. With a prison population that has risen to 70,000 inmates and with the nation’s highest rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, more than 2,817 inmates died in New York prisons during the period 1990-1998. In April 1992, in the face of an ever-increasing death rate in its prisons, the New York State legislature passed the Medical Parole Law, a measure designed to permit dying inmates to be released on parole prior to their normal release eligibility date.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , Fall 1999 , pp. 216 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1999

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References

New York's death rate per 1,000 for the 3-year period from 1994 to 1996 was 5.6 inmate deaths as compared with a national rate of 3.1 inmate deaths, a rate 80 percent higher than the national average. See Hammett, T. Harmon, P., and Maruschak, L., 1996–1997 Update: HIV/AIDS, STDs, and TB in Correctional Facilities (Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, NCJ 176344, July 1999): at 11 tbl. 5.Google Scholar
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This analysis is based on surveillance data maintained by DOCS for all HIV-infected inmates known to DOCS during the period 1994–1998.Google Scholar
Although beyond this article's scope, litigation in which I am involved questions whether HIV-infected inmates are receiving appropriate care within New York State prisons. But even if the care is not consistent with community standards, many HIV-infected patients are on antiretroviral therapy, and this therapy, whether optimal or not, has slowed the progression of their illness.Google Scholar
This estimate is based on a personal evaluation of DOCS and Commission on Corrections data base records for each patient. Where ambiguity arose, I did not count the death as AIDS related.Google Scholar
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