This report investigates critical failings of Pennsylvania’s medical transfer law, more commonly known as compassionate release. The medical transfer statute,  42 Pa. C.S.9777, was passed in 2009, to permit a temporary deferral of a criminal sentence for incarcerated individuals who are terminally ill to allow them to seek more appropriate medical care in the community. This law was meant to allow such individuals to be transferred to a location, whether at home with their loved ones or in a medical facility, where they can receive medical care tailored to their needs so they can die with a modicum of compassion and dignity. 

The combination of mass incarceration policies and severe sentencing laws over the past several decades has resulted in a fast-growing number of elderly incarcerated persons requiring extensive medical care. According to experts, medical care in Pennsylvania’s carceral facilities is typically delayed and substandard and prison is not an appropriate care environment for medically vulnerable elders. The need for compassionate release is greater than ever, yet there are major barriers to accessing relief under the current law. The statute’s strict requirements limit eligibility to only a small proportion of the gravely ill who receive a prognosis of less than a year to live from a treating physician. Furthermore, there is no right to appointed counsel and not nearly enough lawyers to take on these cases. Since 2009, only approximately 55 people have been granted compassionate release under Pennsylvania’s law.

A Call for Greater Compassion: How Pennsylvania’s Compassionate Release Statue Reinforces Cruelty summarizes the statutory requirements for compassionate release, examines additional issues with the current process, highlights the stories of several individuals who applied for medical transfer, and advocates broadening parole eligibility as the path forward for addressing the crisis of the growing population of sick elders in Pennsylvania prisons.

Date of Publication: December, 2024
Funded by: Next50 Foundation