Letting them out when sick or dying

This effective article from Alabama highlights one way that states are looking to reduce their prison populations:

Next month Alabama will start releasing sick or dying prison inmates, a move that state prison officials say immediately will start saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

Each sick or dying prisoner costs the state $60,000 to $65,000 in medical costs, and about 125 state inmates will be eligible for the furloughs that start on Sept. 1 said Prison Commissioner Richard Allen. But victims rights advocates say the program is so broad it will lead to dangerous criminals getting back on the streets and doesn't save any money because it only transfers the costs from one government agency to another.

There are about 25,000 inmates in Alabama prisons, and prisoners eligible for the program are 55 or older and have life-threatening illnesses -- none convicted of capital crimes and most sex crimes will be eligible, Allen said.

A Montgomery Advertiser review found 37 states have some program allowing for the early release of dying or infirm prisoners, according to state Department of Corrections policies.  A Justice Department official said rising medical costs and mandatory sentencing guidelines that lock prisoners up for longer terms are the reasons so many states have implemented the furloughs, also called humanitarian paroles or compassionate releases. Capt. Ron McCuan, a health analyst with the National Institute of Corrections, a Justice Department agency, said state officials are looking for new ways to reduce health-care expenses....

Wyoming passed a law in March that went into effect July 1, said Belinda Brazzale, a spokeswoman for the prisons system.  For a terminally ill inmate to be considered for release, he or she must have a life expectancy of 12 months or less.

Ohio prison system officials are looking to change the requirement that terminally ill inmates must have a life expectancy of 6 months or less before being considered, said Sara Andrews, superintendent of the Adult Parole Authority.  Ohio has had a medical parole law on the books for more than 25 years.  It was last updated in 1995.  A bill pending in the state Legislature "would broaden the scope of release," she said.

Oklahoma's prisons system began "medical parole" in 2000. Since then about 135 inmates have been released, said Bob Mann, coordinator of clinical social work for the state's prisons system. There have only been "one or two inmates" returned to the prisons who were granted medical parole, Mann said.

North Carolina has about 39,000 inmates in its prison system, according to the agency's Web site. Department of Corrections officials are trying to determine how many of those inmates may be eligible for the medical furlough system, spokesman George Dudley said.