COVID-19 and the reimaging of compassionate release

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-08-2021-0072
• Published date: 24 June 2022
• Date: 24 June 2022
• Pages: 20-34
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice
• Author: Jennifer E. James,Meghan Foe,Riya Desai,Apoorva Rangan,Mary Price

COVID-19 and the reimaging of

compassionate release

Jennifer E. James, Meghan Foe, Riya Desai, Apoorva Rangan and Mary Price

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical overview of compassionate release

policies in the USA and describe how these policieshave been used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors then describe how these programs have been shaped by COVID-19 and could be

reimagined to address the structuralconditions that make prisons potentially life limitingfor older adults

and thosewith chronic illness.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper is primarily descriptive, offering an overview of the

history of compassionate release policies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors

augmented this description by surveying state Departments of Corrections about their utilization of

compassionate release during 2019 and 2020. The findings from this survey were combined with data

collected via Freedom of Information Act Requests sent to state Departments of Correctionsabout the

same topic.

Findings –The findings demonstratethat while the US federal prison system saw a multifold increase in

the number of individuals released under compassionate release policies in 2020 compared to 2019,

most US states had modest change, with many states maintaining the same number, or even fewer,

releasesin 2020 compared with 2019.

Originality/value –This paper provides both new data and new insight into compassionate release

utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers new possibilities for how compassionate release

might be consideredin the future.

Keywords Health policy, Elderly prisoners, Chronic illness, COVID-19, Decarceration,

Compassionate release

Paper type General review

Aging and compassionate release

Michael Mahoney died alone in a federal prison hospital on July 30, 2004 (Price, 2009). Mr

Mahoney had been sentenced to 15years due to a mandatory minimum sentence based on

prior convictions. Nine years into his sentence, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s

lymphoma and underwent radiation and chemotherapy. But his disease was aggressive

and, ultimately, incurable. He was bedridden and in constant pain. He made a request for

compassionate release to allow him to dieat home. Despite support from the medical team,

the prison warden and his family, the director of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) refused to

petition the court for his release. The judge who sentencedhim even reached out, noting his

support of the motion. The director of the BOP did not respond, and Mr Mahoney died,

behind bars, a few days later (Price, 2009).

Irwin Schiff was 87-years-old and had less than two years left on his sentence

(Thompson, 2018). His son Andrew had spent more than two years trying to obtain

compassionate release. His request was denied. When Andrew said goodbye to his

father at a federal medical facility, Mr Schiff was unconscious and on a respirator but still

handcuffed to his hospital bed with an armed correctional officer standing guard nearby

(Thompson, 2018).

(Informationabout the

authorscan be found at the

end of this article.)

Received 7 August 2021

Revised 5 January 2022

Accepted 7 February 2022

©Jennifer E. James, Meghan

Foe, Riya Desai, Apoorva

Rangan and Mary Price.

Published by Emerald

Publishing Limited. This article

is published under the Creative

Commons Attribution (CC BY

4.0) licence. Anyone may

reproduce, distribute, translate

and create derivative works of

this article (for both commercial

and non-commercial

purposes), subject to full

attribution to the original

publication and authors. The

full terms of this licence may be

seen at http://creativecommons.

org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

This paper was the collaborative

effort of the ARCH Network

CompassionateRelease Working

Group. The authorsgratefully

acknowledge all members of the

working groupfor their help in

the conceptualization of this

manuscript. In particular, authors

are grateful to Dr Lauren

Brinkley–Rubinstein for her

leadership in setting the direction

of their groupand to the COVID

Prison Project for providing

contact informationto support

our survey efforts. They are

grateful to Dr Meghan Novisky for

her role in planning this research

and paper. They are thankfulto

Hawah Cyllah for invaluablehelp

with accessing FAMMFOIA data.

This paper was supported by

funding from the ARCH Network

(National Instituteof Aging grant:

R24AG065175).

Since the time of writing this

article, Meghan Foe died. Her

contributions to this paper were

invaluable and the authors are

committed to continuing to do

research centeringthe lives and

voices of incarcerated people in

her legacy.

PAGE 20 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTH jVOL. 19 NO. 1 2023, pp. 20-34, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200 DOI 10.1108/IJPH-08-2021-0072