Medical parole bill signed by governor

September 30, 2010|By Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Sacramento - — California taxpayers will save an estimated $40 million this year in prison costs after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that allows the state to parole ill and incapacitated inmates.

SB1399 by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, aims to reduce the hundreds of millions the deficit-plagued state spends each year to care for a small group of sick inmates. It was sponsored by the federal receiver in charge of the state's prison health care system.

The measure allows the medical directors of state prison facilities to recommend an inmate for medical parole if they determine that the prisoner is "permanently medically incapacitated" and requires 24-hour-a-day care. The state Board of Parole Hearings will decide whether parole is granted and set the conditions of that parole.

No one sentenced to death or life without parole will be eligible, and any inmates granted release under the measure would remain on parole.

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Wonderful. I guess this just shows how desperate the prison system is to save money. Shuffle the cost off to someone else. Meanwhile, if you have a strong stomach, read this story. You keep hoping that some people would just disappear from public discourse. But it seems, with the help of Fox News, they never go away. Newt Gingrich, Ed Meese, John Dilullio etc. have all signed on to the Right on Crime Campaign. That's right folks, the right wingers who caused the problem now want you to support them fixing it. Tom

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