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Advocates, clinicians and exonerees press for elder and medical parole changes
Summary
Supporters told the committee that Massachusetts imprisons a disproportionate number of older people and that the current medical-parole process is slow and underused. Clinicians, exonerees and family members urged changes in S.1722/H.2693 to speed hearings, add screening and reduce deaths in custody.
At the joint public hearing, dozens of witnesses recommended statutory changes to allow timely release of incarcerated elders and medically vulnerable people. Testimony included clinicians, advocacy groups, exonerees and people currently incarcerated.
Several speakers described the human cost of denying timely medical parole: clinicians recounted patients who died in hospitals while shackled or whose families were permitted very limited bedside time; former inmates…
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