The use of medical reprieves has been on the rise in Georgia, according to state Department of Corrections data obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.
There were just 22 granted in fiscal year 2007. That more than tripled in fiscal year 2009 when 69 sick inmates were granted reprieves. The reprieves are given to the sickest inmates who officials say no longer pose a safety threat. Some leave to seek treatment for a serious ailment. Others - with a progressive terminal illness - are let out to die.
Corrections officials, citing health privacy laws, declined to provide specifics about the inmates who have been granted reprieves.
But in a conservative, law-and-order state like Georgia, the fact that even sick inmates are being released in greater numbers shows just how much the bad economy has changed the debate.
Georgia has some of the toughest sentencing laws in the nation and its prison population has swelled in recent years. That's meant an explosion in the state's population of elderly inmates, who tend to have the worst health problems.
"More inmates are applying (for medical reprieves) and more are being granted," Michael Nail, Corrections Division Director, said. "We've been getting more aggressive about this because it makes sense for those sick inmates who are no longer a risk and it saves money."
A small number of very sick inmates are a huge drain to the state's prison health care budget. Georgia spends about $51 million a year on inmate health care claims.
In fiscal year 2009, the 200 sickest inmates in the state accounted for about 41 percent of that $51 million total according to state figures. And officials say that trend has been continuing for the current fiscal year.
The state is on the hook for 100 percent of the medical costs for prisoners behind bars. Once an inmate is released, he or she is eligible for Medicaid and so the cost is split with the federal government.
Georgia's tax collections are continuing to plunge. And the state is looking to wring every last cent of savings out of state agencies as it stares down what could be another huge budget shortfall.
The pressure to release geriatric and sick inmates could grow even more as the cash-strapped state prepares to close Men's State Prison in Milledgeville at the beginning of next year for a savings of $5.2 million. The prison houses many of the state's elderly and "special needs" prisoners. Of the 670 male inmates housed there, 109 are in wheelchairs and 167 use a cane, crutch or walker. They'll be moved to other already crowded prisons.
Officials with the state board of Pardons and Parole - who decide on medical reprieve applications - say they won't release someone who still poses a threat to public safety.
But Parole Board member Robert Keller acknowledges that the state's budget woes are a concern.
"To say you don't look at costs," Keller pauses. "That's simply not true."
"We would be irresponsible public servants if we didn't consider costs," he said.
Keller said they recently released an inmate who needs a kidney transplant, an operation that could have cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars if the inmate remained behind bars.
But the process becomes trickier when it comes to inmates who have committed felony crimes so serious they aren't eligible for parole. To be eligible for a medical reprieve, an inmate must have a progressive terminal illness and be entirely incapacitated.
But what does entirely incapacitated mean? In a wheelchair? On a ventilator?
Keller said the board has struggled with that question and that only two or three reprieves have been handed out to inmates who wouldn't otherwise have been eligible for parole.
State Rep. Terry Barnard, R-Glennville, has introduced legislation designed to clarify the term to help the parole board. The bill has yet to move.
Keller said that when it comes to medical reprieves there is also a measure of compassion.
"Dying with dignity. There is something to that," Keller, a former Clayton County district attorney, said.
Sara Totonchi, head of the Southern Center for Human Rights, said she's encouraged the state is finally making use of medical reprieves, which they've used so sparingly in the past.
"This is a population of people who should be allowed to go home to die in peace," Totonchi said.
Still, that's not always possible.
In fiscal year 2009, 12 inmates who applied for medical reprieves died before the state could act on their applications.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2010/3/215969