State Prison Releases Woman Dying of AIDS

A 35-year-old woman dying of AIDS has been released from state prison after a three-month campaign by other inmates and AIDS activists who demanded her freedom on grounds of compassion.

Betty Jo Ross, who suffers from AIDS-related dementia and blindness, was released Tuesday night from the Central California Women’s Facility at Chowchilla after serving four months of a two-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon.

Ross’ mother picked her up at the prison 35 miles northwest of Fresno and drove her home to East Palo Alto. Doctors have told Ross, a mother of three, that she has less than six months to live.

“It feels so good to have my child home with me,” said Ona Hall, Ross’ mother. “I can see her perking up a little bit. But she’s a pretty sick girl. I took her to the hospital today and they want to keep her for awhile.”

James Gomez, the state’s director of corrections, had twice rejected Ross’ plea for early release, saying she was a violent offender who posed a threat to residents of a boardinghouse where she wanted to live with her mother.

Inmates at the Chowchilla facility, which houses 3,861 prisoners, protested Gomez’s decision, gathering more than 1,000 signatures and donning signs stating “Free Betty” and “Don’t Let Betty Die in Prison.” The San Francisco chapter of ACT UP, an AIDS activist group, began a letter campaign demanding her release.

Late last month, Gomez reversed course and granted Ross’ request. Last week a Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County, where Ross was convicted in the May, 1993, assault, approved her release.

“Betty would still be inside if it wasn’t for the campaign by the inmates, the support of the prison staff and the pressure put on the Department of Corrections by us,” said Judy Greenspan of the ACT UP chapter.

Tip Kindel, a state corrections official, said the decision to grant Ross early release had nothing to do with the protest inside or outside the prison. Instead, Ross’ mother, who ran the boardinghouse where Ross wanted to live, relinquished the business and assured state corrections officials that her daughter and grandchildren would be the only residents.

According to prison officials, Ross has a criminal history dating to 1976 and once spent 16 months in state prison for drug and property offenses. Her latest conviction stemmed from a store robbery in which she struck the owner on the head with a hammer.

Even before her sentence, Ross had been found to have AIDS. Shortly after arriving at the prison in September, Ross became so weak that other inmates had to carry her to the dining hall, according to ACT UP. The HIV-positive section of the prison, in which 52 infected inmates live, lacked a wheelchair.

Ross spent a month in the prison infirmary, where the staff determined that she was in the final stages of AIDS. The staff advocated her early release, a recommendation rejected by Gomez in November and again in early December.

Ross shared a cell with Joann Walker, who made sure she ate and took her medication. Walker spearheaded the petition drive and contacted ACT UP.