WBURBy Deborah BeckerMarch 3, 2022 A group of state lawmakers on Monday visited a health care unit inside a state-run prison after receiving multiple complaints of understaffing, unsanitary conditions and inadequate medical treatment. Several of the lawmakers, along with some prisoner advocates, said issues at the health care unit inside MCI-Norfolk raised questions about the […]
STATEMENT BY PRISONERS’ LEGAL SERVICES IN SUPPORT OF MEDICAL PAROLE
February 10, 2022 In light of the news conference today about “ending the medical parole loophole for murderers,” Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts would like to address misperceptions surrounding the medical parole process and highlight the importance of ensuring access to it. In 2018, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted the medical parole statute as part of […]
Massachusetts SJC to consider rules of medical parole for ill prisoners
October 3, 2019
MassLive
Shira Schoenberg
Judge: State is ‘slowly killing’ quadriplegic murderer
August 15, 2019
Worcester Telegram
Brad Petrishen
State rules would limit eligibility for medical parole for seriously ill prisoners in Massachusetts
MassLive July 10th, 2019 By Shira Schoenberg Since Massachusetts created a medical parole program in April 2018, the state has approved only four requests to release terminally ill prisoners. Now, new rules being considered by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security could limit the pool of eligible prisoners even further. Speaking at a public […]
At Department of Correction, a death of compassion
Boston Globe June 28, 2018 By Yvonne Abraham How meaningful is the state’s new compassionate release law if it doesn’t help a man for whom it seems to have been designed? That’s the question that must be asked in the case of Alexander Phillips, the first inmate to apply for medical release under the state’s […]
State wants to show compassion to ill inmates — and save money
Boston Globe May 21, 2018 By Jenifer McKim, New England Center for Investigative Reporting GARDNER — Beyond the barbed wire of a state prison, down a dirt road marked with “no trespassing” signs, lies a hill dotted with PVC-pipe crosses marking the graves of nearly 90 inmates. The makeshift crosses in this state-owned cemetery bear […]
Koutoujian and Walker: Compassionate release programs are good public policy
June 22, 2017 Metrowest Daily News By Sheriff Peter Koutoujian and Leslie Walker We believe it is time for Massachusetts to join the list of 45 states and the federal government who have instituted Extraordinary Medical Placement, Medical Parole or Compassionate Release programs. Our incarcerated population is aging, and the graying of corrections has brought with it […]
Among state lawmakers, compassionate release of inmates is divisive issue
By Milton Valencia The Boston Globe October 20, 2016 State lawmakers applauded the recent request by the federal government to free former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi from prison early under a program for elderly and severely ill inmates, agreeing that DiMasi, who has twice battled cancer while incarcerated, should be home with his family. […]