Aging, Sick and Incarcerated: The Need for Compassionate Release

[99th_Monkey]

We seriously need to significantly empty out prisons & jails, of many of the 1.5 Million
people incarcerated in the USA. Wrongful convictions, for bogus petty non-violent
offenses, esp including those related to marijuna and other substances.

Having more peeps behind bars than any other nation is disgraceful.
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Aging, Sick and Incarcerated: The Need for Compassionate Release
Saturday, 18 June 2016 * By Victoria Law * Truthout | Report

Mary Ziman already had debilitating fibromyalgia and, unable to work, was on permanent disability. Then she was arrested and sentenced to 27 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine, charges she says stemmed from fabrications by a woman with mental illness caught with drugs and a gun. That was 17 years ago.

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Mary Ziman. (Photo: Courtesy of CAN-Do Clemency)
Now 67 years old, Ziman has three cancerous spots on her left lung, requires the use of three inhalers and has only 51 percent lung capacity. She is also blind in one eye and has a cataract in the other. In March 2016, after repeatedly complaining to medical staff at the federal prison in Victorville, California, she was hospitalized for a kidney infection stemming from an untreated urinary tract infection. She spent 10 days in the hospital where tests found that she suffered from anemia, arthritis, a hernia and problematic potassium levels affecting her heart. Additionally, Ziman now requires hip and knee surgery.

In April, not long after her release from the hospital, Ziman suffered another devastating blow. The Office of the Pardon Attorney denied her request for clemency, or a commutation lessening the length of her sentence and allowing her to return home early. (Clemency can also take the form of a pardon, which expunges the conviction altogether.) There is no appeal for such a denial. Instead, Ziman must wait an entire year before she can submit another request for clemency.

However, Ziman does have some hope for another route forward: She has filed a petition for compassionate release, which, if granted, would allow her to return home to her nine children, 28 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36464-aging-sick-and-incarcerated-the-need-for-compassionate-release

[FLPanhandle]

1. Germany just convicted and jailed a 95 year old concentration camp guard

Age is not a "get out of jail free" card.

[99th_Monkey]

3. Exceptions an certainly be made, as with aging Nazis. n/t

[SheilaT]

2. And what will these aging prisoners do for health care?

We don't have a universal or single payer system. Chances are they aren't eligible for Medicare. And many states don't allow ex-felons to get Medicaid.

This specific person might be able to return to disability and Medicare, but I wouldn't count on it.

And of course, stories like this give the lie to the many statements that people in prison have it good, get excellent medical and dental care, which is total bullshit.