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History
- Referred to crime victims, crime and correction
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to prohibiting medical parole for persons convicted of an act of terrorism
Purpose
The purpose of this bill is (1) to streamline and fast tract applications for medical parole by authorizing the Commissioner for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to assume complete discretion over approving applications for medical parole; and expanding eligibility for medical parole to cover any sentence, except a sentence for an act of terrorism. This bill transfers the power to grant medical parole from the Board of Parole to the DOCCS Commissioner, to fast track applications for terminally ill inmates or inmates whose medical condition has deteriorated to the degree that that they will pose no reasonable threat to the public safety.
Summary of provisions
(l) Throughout the statute governing applications for medical parole the word "board" or "board of parole" is replaced by the word "Commissioner" or Commissioner for the Department of Correction and Community Supervision; (2) Section 259-s is amended so that only inmates convicted and sentenced for an act of terrorism as defined in section 490.05 of the penal law shall be deemed ineligible to apply for medical parole.
Read the full memo (977 words)
Justification
Each year only a small number of inmates are eligible to apply for medical parole. An inmate may be eligible to apply if the inmate has (1) a terminal health condition; or (2) a significant and permanent non-terminal condition, disease or syndrome; (3) the inmate is so physically or cognitively debilitated or incapacitated that there is a reasonable probability that he or she no longer represents any danger to society.
Medical Parole Program Highlights
The following represents summaries of medical parole processing and outcomes for all applications reviewed by the Board of Parole from June 1992 through December 2013 (11 years).
(1) From June 1992 through the end of December 2013, there were 495 certified applications submitted for medical parole. The past five years showed an average of 13 applications submitted per year: 12 in 2009; 10 in 2010; 10 in 2011; 18 in 2012 and 17 during 2013.
(2) The primary diagnoses of the 495 applicants were as follows: HIV+/AIDS (55%), Cancer (28%) and Other (16%). Eighty-six percent of the applicants were male and 14 percent were female.
(3) Of the 495 applicants for medical parole, 106 dropped out of the medical parole process prior to having a Board Interview. Of these, 99 applicants died prior to Board Interview, 4 applicants withdrew their applications and the remaining 3 applicants were discharged by court order or had reached their parole eligibility date prior to Board Interview.
(4) From June 1992 through December 2013, 354 of the 389 (91%) medical parole applicants who appeared before the Board were granted medical parole. The 29 applicants who were denied release were denied due to
risk assessment/criminal history. The remaining 6 were postponed and died prior to their next Board appearance.
(5) For those inmates appearing before the Parole Board through December 2013, an average of 22 business days elapsed between the date the application was received and the date of the Board appearance; however, excluding the statutorily required 15-day waiting period, an average of 7 business days elapsed.
(6) For those inmates granted release in 2013, an average of 21 business days elapsed between the Board appearance date and the release date. This was a 16% decrease from 25 business days during 1993.
(7) Since medical parole's inception in June 1992, approximately 56,531 prison days have been saved due to parolees' early release to medical parole supervision.
(8) A total of 83 percent (270) of the 327 inmates released on medical parole through December 2013 were released to New York City. The remaining 57 inmates were released to counties in 4 upstate New York.
(9) Placements pursuant to the final medical discharge plans for the 327 releases through December 2013 were as follows: 219 to skilled nursing facilities, 51 to hospital settings, 53 to home care and 3 to hospice care (missing placement information for one person).
(10) A total of 17 (5%) of the 327 cases granted medical parole and released between June 1992 and December 2013 were still under medical parole supervision at the end of December 2013. Two hundred nineteen parolees (71%) died following release, 84 parolees (27%) converted to regular parole at their PE dates, one was discharged as a merit termination, one was discharged by the Board, and 5 parolees (2%) were revoked and returned to prison.
(11) The 17 parolees under medical parole supervision at the end of December 2013 had been under supervision for a total of 5,387 days, or an average of 317 days per parolee. Each parolee's medical condition is assessed every six months to ascertain the appropriateness of their continued status on medical parole. Conclusion The medical parole program continues to meet its primary objective to provide a compassionate release mechanism for sick or dying inmates. As the medical parole program marked 21 1/2 years of existence at the end of December 2013, only 5 of the 327 medical parole releasees (2%) had been returned to prison.
As noted earlier. Between 1999 and 2013, 99 applicants for medical parole died before the board interview and 106 dropped out of the process before seeing the board. This special form of parole is fact specific and justified by a medical opinion. It is the intent of this bill to increase the pool of fragile applicants that apply for medical release and the amount of time the application is being processed.
Fiscal implications
To be determined but the sponsors believe that the cost of medical care outside of prison mill be cheaper, yet qualitatively superior to the cost of incarceration and medical care inside of prison.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.