SACRAMENTO — California has halted a court-ordered medical parole program, opting instead to send its most incapacitated prisoners back to state lockups or release them early.
The unilateral termination is drawing protests from attorneys representing prisoners and the author of the state’s medical parole legislation, who say it unnecessarily puts this vulnerable population at risk. The move is the latest wrinkle in a long-running drive to free those deemed so ill that they are no longer a danger to society.
“We have concerns that they cannot meet the needs of the population for things like memory care, dementia, traumatic brain injury,” said Sara Norman, an attorney who represents the prisoners as part of a nearly three-decade-old federal class-action lawsuit . “These are not people who are in full command and control of their own surroundings, their memories — they’re helpless.”…