Medical parole hearing for molester delayed indefinitely

Reporting from Sacramento -- The state parole hearing for a semi-paralyzed child molester has been postponed indefinitely because officials can’t find a place to house him without violating laws that bar sex offenders from living near schools or parks.

Edward Ortiz, 58, has been chained to a Marin County hospital bed with a breathing tube in his throat for more than a year. He is incapable of getting up, but taxpayers have spent roughly $800,000 annually to post three guards by his bedside around the clock.

The state has a new medical parole law crafted so inmates like Ortiz, who are judged “permanently medically incapacitated” by prison medical staff, would stay where they are but the guards would go home.

The inmates’ medical expenses would be picked up by their families, if they could afford to pay, or by government agencies if they could not. Either way, California taxpayers would be spared the high cost of guarding the inmates, some of whom are in comas.

The hospital Ortiz is in, which The Times agreed not to name for security reasons, is next to a park. Another bedridden inmate, convicted sex offender John Diaz, occupies a room across the hall. Diaz’s medical parole hearing, scheduled for Friday at San Quentin State Prison, was also postponed for the same reason.

Neither hearing will be rescheduled until prison officials can find a hospital willing to take the inmates that would not be in violation of Jessica’s Law, which prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of places where children gather.

“It is virtually impossible to find Jessica’s Law-compliant housing for sex offenders in the Bay Area,” said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the receiver appointed to oversee California’s prison healthcare. Officials are looking elsewhere in the state.

About a dozen permanently incapacitated prisoners are being treated at outside hospitals. The average annual cost for each is more than $1 million.

The medical parole law could also apply to thousands of other inmates being treated behind prison walls. Their release would lower medical costs and help relieve the corrections system’s chronic overcrowding.

Opponents of the law argue that any kind of early release deprives victims and their families of justice.

In late May, officials denied medical parole to the first applicant, a 42-year old rapist who was rendered a quadriplegic when a knife-wielding fellow inmate severed his spinal cord. The board ruled that although he can’t use his arms or legs, he might still use his voice to order attacks on others.

Since then three other inmates, including a burglar and a man convicted of a home invasion robbery, have been approved for medical parole. Officials would not describe their medical conditions for fear of violating health privacy statutes.

If any inmate released on medical parole recovers enough to pose a public safety threat, he or she is supposed to be sent back to prison immediately.

jack.dolan@latimes.com