Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “Just 54 people have been freed from prison during the past 15 years through Pennsylvania’s system to release incarcerated people with serious medical conditions.

A measure with bipartisan support would overhaul the process, expanding eligibility and saving the state millions of dollars.

Currently, candidates for compassionate release must have no more than a year to live. That would change under the proposal to include inmates with a terminal illness, serious conditions preventing daily living activities, life-threatening illnesses better treated outside prison or serious cognitive/functional decline.

As many as 700 people incarcerated in the commonwealth would be eligible based on that criteria and state Department of Corrections (DoC) records, according to the measure’s fiscal note….

The Abolitionist Law Center’s John Thomspon recalled people he’s known including David Lee, who died after being denied commutation and could have benefited from the proposed changes.

‘Death by incarceration continues to exist, and this… will help alleviate some of those people so that they don’t die in prison,’ Thompson said. ‘Not only that, it costs the state way more money to keep them in prison. The medical bills go off the chain. The older you get, the more medical care you need.'”

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