When the letter reached the Westl -Gonzalez prison, saying that he had given a conditional release, he could not read it. Over the course of the 33 years, he was imprisoned for murder, and multiple sclerosis had taken a lot of his vision and left him dependent on a wheelchair.
He had a clear feeling of what he would do as soon as he released. “I want to give my testimony to two young people there and capture weapons,” Mr. Gonzalez, 57, said in an interview with him recently. “I want to save one person from what I went through.”
But six months have passed, and Mr. Gonzalez is still being held outside Bovalo, because the Ministry of Corrections did not find the elderly care house that would accept it. Another prisoner in New York was in the same forgetfulness for 20 months. Others were released only after prosecuting the state.
The population of the elderly prisoners in America rises, partly due to more people who spend long sentences due to violent crimes. Nearly 16 percent of the prisoners were More than 55 in 2022Height of 5 percent In 2007. The share of prisoners, which is more than 65 quarter, over the same time period, to about 4 percent.
Complex and expensive medical conditions require more nursing care, whether in prison or after the prisoner’s release. Throughout the country, prison systems that try to remove prisoners convicted of serious crimes themselves find themselves with few options. It may be difficult to find the family of the Nursing House even for those who do not have criminal records.
The spending on guest care is increasing – in New York, as long as it has grown A little more than $ 7500 In 2021 of about $ 6,000 per person in 2012. Nevertheless, those who work with prisoners say money is often not enough to keep pace with the increasing share of older prisoners with chronic health problems.
“We see many of the unfortunate gaps in the field of care,” said Dr. William Weber, an emergency doctor at Chicago and the medical director of the Medical Justice Alliance, a non -profit organization. Doctors trained to work as witnesses of prison cases. “With guests often they are struggling to obtain specialized care or even copies of their own medical records,” Things are flowing through cracks. “
Dr. Weber said he was recently involved in two cases of seriously injured prisoners, one in Pennsylvania and the other in Illinois, who could not be released without placing a nursing house. He said that the Pennsylvania prisoner died in prison and is still an Illinois man imprisoned.
Almost all countries Programs that allow early version For guests with dangerous or life -threatening medical conditions. The New York program is one of the most expansion programs: While other countries often limit politics for those who have less than six months to live, New York is open to anyone with peripheral or delusional disease. Nearly 90 people were granted medical conditional release in New York between 2020 and 2023.
But the occupancy rate in the nursing house in the state is hovering around it 90 percentOne of the highest rates in the country, which makes it particularly difficult to find areas for prisoners.
Thomas Melly, a spokesman for the Ministry of Corrections in New York and the supervision of the community, said the prison system “is competing with hospital patients, rehabilitation patients and the public public who need skilled nursing for a limited number of available family.” He refused to comment on the case of Mr. Gonzalez or the medical conditions of any other prisoner.
The conditional release remains in the state custody until the original prison period has expired. The courts have already supported the right of the state to put the conditions on the publications of prisoners to protect the public, such as preventing the sexual perpetrators of conditional release near schools.
But lawyers and medical ethics claim that patients should be allowed to release the conditional to choose how to obtain their care. Some have noticed that the medical needs of these prisoners do not necessarily meet in prison. Mr. Gonzalez, for example, said he had not received glasses, despite repeated requests. His illness made one of his hands a curl inward, leaving his nails that are not covered in the palm of his hand.
“Although I am sympathetic to the difficulty of finding places, the virtual solution cannot continue to prison,” said Stephen Zaidman, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at the Faculty of Law, said. In 2019, one of his clients He died Weeks after the medical conditional release was granted.
New York does not publish data on the number of prisoners waiting for home nursing places. one 2018 study I found that between 2013 and 2015, six out of 36 prisoners died that gave the medical conditional release before finding a situation. The study showed that the medical conditional release process is moving slowly, and sometimes it takes years for the prisoner even to get an interview about its potential launch.
Finding an elderly caring house can be difficult even for the patient without a criminal record. The facilities have I struggle to recruit employeesEspecially since the Korona virus pandemic. The role of the elderly sponsorship may also worry about the safety risks that a person with a prior condemnation, or about the financial risks of the loss of the population who do not want to live in a facility accepting the former guests.
“The elderly sponsorship role indicates fears, whether it is rational or not, it is very easy not to pick up this phone call or restore it,” said Roth Venkelstein, a professor at Hunter College, who specializes in older adult policies and reviewing legal deposits at Hunter College. Times request.
Some people participating in such cases said that prisons in New York often do more than just a quick search for nursing care.
When he was detained at the Sullivan Correctional Facility from 2010 to 2016, he worked in a section that helped coordinate conditional releases. He often mentioned his supervisor to contact the homes of the elderly that did not pick up the first time.
“They will say that they have many other responsibilities to stay on the phone,” said Mr. Saldana.
Mr. Mailey, a spokesman for the New York corrections department, said the agency has many discharge teams looking for employment options.
In 2023, Arthur Green, the 73 -year -old patient in dialysis, filed a lawsuit against the state for his release four months after he was granted to medical conditional release. In a lawsuit, Mr. Green’s lawyers said they had a status in a home to care for the elderly, but this matter has turned because the Department of Corrections submitted an incomplete request to a center close to dialysis.
The state found a place for Mr. Green a year after the date of the conditional release, according to Marsha Rainer, Specialist In cases of release of prisoners.
John Texira obtained a medical conditional release in 2020, at the age of 56, but he remained imprisoned for two and a half years, as the state searched for a home to care for the elderly. He had a history of heart attacks and taking daily medications, including one delivered through an intravenous port. But an evaluation of an independent cardiologist concluded that Mr. Texhara He did not need nursing care.
Lawyers at the Legal Assistance Association in New York A lawsuit against the state To release him, noting that while he was waiting, his port became repeatedly injured and the development of his diagnosis from the “advanced” heart failure to the “final stage”.
Department of Corrections Respond 16 nursing homes have rejected the acceptance of Mr. Teixeira because they were unable to manage his medical needs. The case was resolved three months after the lawsuit was filed, when the judge made a great pressure “on the state to find an appropriate position, according to Stephen Short, one of the lawyers of Mr. Texira.
Some patients who are waiting for the release have found difficulty in obtaining medical care from the inside.
Steve Coleman, 67, faces difficulty walking and spends most of the day sitting. After 43 years, he was imprisoned for killing, the conditional release was granted in April 2023 and remained imprisoned, as the state is looking for an elderly care house that can coordinate with the dialysis center three times every week.
But Mr. Coleman has not had dialysis treatment since March, when the state ended a contract with its provider. The prison was offered the transfer of Mr. Coleman to a nearby treatment clinic, but he refused because he finds a transportation protocol – which includes a search for the tape and killing – painful and gaze.
He said in an interview with him recently: “They say that you have to go through the tape.” “If you have a conditional release, I can’t walk while I am going to the hospital, so who can hurt?”
Volunteers in the Musfi Non -profit release project, which helped Mr. Coleman in requesting a conditional release, received a message from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in June, where she provided him with medical care and help him move to society.
It is still imprisoned after two months, Mr. Coleman is prosecuting To release him.
in Court filesThe state argued that it would be “insecure and irresponsible” the release of Mr. Coleman without plans to meet his medical needs. The state also said it was I called Mount SinaiIn addition to hundreds of homes of the elderly, around Mr. Coleman’s position and has never heard.
In October, the court ruled in favor of the prison system. The position of Mr. Coleman described as “very sad and frustrated”, Judge Dibra Givens from the Supreme Court of New York State conclude The state has a rational reason for Mr. Coleman after the date of the conditional release. Mrs. Rainer, the lawyer of Mr. Coleman, and the Civil Liberties Union in New York on Wednesday appealed.
Fourteen medical ethics sent a message to the prison to support the release of Mr. Coleman. And they wrote “forcing the continuous prison under the guise of” the best interests “, even if it is goodwill to do so, it ignores its independence.”
Many other countries have reached a different solution for people with conditional release: Work seeking to seek From the role of caring for the elderly specialized in housing patients, they refused elsewhere.
I opened a private company called ICARE in 2013 The first such facility In Connecticut, which now includes 95 of the population. The company runs the role of the elderly sponsorship in the same in Fairmont and Massachusetts.
David Scucosolic, Vice President of Business Development at ICARE, said that these facilities tend to save state funds because the federal government covers some costs through Medicaid.
“It is more humane, less restricted and costly.” “There is no reason for these people to stay in a correction environment.”
