Eliminates eligibility for medical parole based cognitive inability to present a danger or debilitating illness; repealer

Title of bill

An act to amend the executive law and the penal law, in relation to the eligibility criteria for release on medical parole; and to repeal section 259-s of the executive law relating to release on medical parole for inmates suffering significant debilitating illnesses

Purpose

To limit the eligibility for medical parole to inmates who are determined to be suffering from a terminal condition, disease or syndrome by barring inmates convicted of serious homicide or sex offenses and to repeal Executive Law 259-s which currently authorizes release on medical parole for inmates who are suffering from significant and permanent non-terminal illnesses.

Summary of provisions

The bill amends Executive Law section 259-r by providing that inmates serving a sentence upon conviction for murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree, aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated manslaughter in the first degree, aggravated murder or a sex offense defined in article 130 of the Penal Law are not eligible for release on medical parole, and makes conforming amendments to the remainder of section 259-r.

The bill also repeals Executive Law section 259-s which provided for release on medical parole of inmates who are not suffering from a terminal illness or condition.

Justification

In 1992, during the height of the AIDS crisis, Executive Law section 259-r was added to authorize medical parole for terminally ill inmates who were not convicted of the most serious homicide offenses. Subsequent amendments to section 259-r expanded the pool of inmates eligible for medical parole.

In 2009, section 259-s was added to the Executive Law to provide that inmates suffering from non-terminal illnesses were also eligible for medical parole.

This bill limits the eligibility of terminally ill inmates by excluding inmates convicted of the most serious homicide offenses and sex offenses and also provides that inmates who are suffering from non-terminal illnesses are not eligible for medical parole.

When an inmate applies for medical parole, the victim, or the victim's family, are notified of the application and may object to the granting of medical parole, However, some inmates who do not have a terminal illness repeatedly request release on medical parole, and each request results in the victim, or the victim's family having to relive the crime and the affect that crime has had on the life, or death, of the victim. This causes a continual reminder and re-opens the emotional wound suffered each and every time an application is made.

Inmates who have a medical condition which is not terminal which can be adequately treated in a correctional facility should not be allowed to use that condition to seek an early release from prison. This is even more important for an inmate who had that condition when he or she was sentenced after being found guilty of committing the crime. The sentencing court may have taken the medical condition into consideration and imposed a reduced sentence, or determined that the defendant should not have a reduced sentence due to the nature and seriousness of the crime. In either case, an inmate with a medical condition that is not terminal should not be permitted to use that condition to obtain early release from prison.

Legislative history

New Bill

Fiscal implications

None to the State.

Effective date

Immediately