Deathbeds and Prison Bars : Bill codifying rules for release of dying convicts is both compassionate and cost-effective

With more than 131,500 inmates bursting California’s 31 state prisons, Assembly Bill 1408 would free up only a few cells. Nonetheless, Gov. Pete Wilson should sign the measure, which passed the Legislature last week, because it’s the right thing to do.

AB 1408 would codify and streamline existing rules for the compassionate release of terminally ill and certain disabled prisoners, such as those in a persistent vegetative state. It would permit release of some inmates who had six months or less to live or who, because of physical disability, posed no “substantial risk” to the community. Most of those released would live out their days in a nursing home or in the care of family members.

The strong bipartisan support that the bill received in the Legislature underscores the problems with current compassionate-release procedures. Decisions about which prisoners to release are needlessly slow, and medical eligibility is arbitrarily determined on a case-by-case basis.

To be blunt, dying inmates cost the state far more than healthy ones; in addition to expensive treatment, they can require armed escorts on trips to hospitals and special guards during infirmary stays.

California already houses the largest prison population in the country. The state’s “three strikes” law will expand that population tremendously--to a projected 211,000 by 1999. The term of 25 years to life that the law requires upon conviction of a third felony means that prisons will house a growing population of aging and sick convicts.

Once a severely ill inmate is released, the cost of care can be shared with the federal and local governments and private institutions, rather than being borne entirely by state taxpayers. No less important, the release of the dying is an act of compassion.

The state has precious few options to reduce the enormous prison costs that “three strikes” is certain to impose in coming years. The change represented by AB 1408 is a small one, but it is a move in the right direction.

Between 1991 and 1994, 270 prisoners petitioned for compassionate release under existing guidelines; only 87 were let out. AB 1408 would be unlikely to significantly increase the number who seek release. But it might, through standardizing the medical criteria for release and imposing timetables for evaluation, allow a few more of those terminally ill inmates to die outside the prison walls.