Signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to concur with House amendments and pass a bill that authorizes the release of permanently incapacitated prisoners on medical parole.

Highlights:

• Specifies that a prisoner will be eligible for parole if he or she meets the following requirements (Sec. 2):
• The prison's Head Physician determines that he or she is permanently incapacitated such that he or she is incapable of performing the activities of daily life;
• The Board of Parole Hearings determines that the prisoner's release would not pose a threat to public safety;
• His or her medical condition requires 24 hour care, and it did not exist at the time of sentencing; and
• He or she is not sentenced to death or to any sentence which prohibits parole.

• Requires that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation work to maximize the Federal financial contribution to the prisoner's health care (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that if the prisoner is ineligible for Medi-Cal, the department shall consider the prisoner's income and assets to determine whether the prisoner can pay for his or her own health care. If the prisoner is eligible for Medi-Cal, provides that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will reimburse county hospitals for the non-federal share of Medi-Cal expenses for parolees and will reimburse hospitals for the costs of "public guardianship health care services" (Sec. 1).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes the release of permanently incapacitated prisoners on medical parole.

Highlights:

• Specifies that a prisoner will be eligible for parole if he or she meets the following requirements (Sec. 2):
• The prison's Head Physician determines that he or she is permanently incapacitated such that he or she is incapable of performing the activities of daily life;
• The Board of Parole Hearings determines that the prisoner's release would not pose a threat to public safety;
• His or her medical condition requires 24 hour care, and it did not exist at the time of sentencing; and
• He or she is not sentenced to death or to any sentence which prohibits parole.

• Requires that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation work to maximize the Federal financial contribution to the prisoner's health care (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that if the prisoner is ineligible for Medi-Cal, the department shall consider the prisoner's income and assets to determine whether the prisoner can pay for his or her own health care. If the prisoner is eligible for Medi-Cal, provides that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will reimburse county hospitals for the non-federal share of Medi-Cal expenses for parolees and will reimburse hospitals for the costs of "public guardianship health care services" (Sec. 1).

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes medical parole for permanently debilitated and incapacitated inmates.

Highlights:

• Requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to perform the following tasks associated with the medical parole of inmates (Sec. 1):
• Enter into memoranda of understanding with the Social Security Administration and the State Department of Health Care Services to facilitate prerelease agreements to help inmates initiate benefits claims;
• Pay the state share of Medi-Cal costs for inmates that have been granted medical parole;
• Reimburse providers for the medical treatment and long-term care costs of inmates granted medical parole who have not retained medical insurance, at a rate no lower than the Medi-Cal rate until the point that a parolee retains alternate health care coverage; and
• Reimburse counties that for the costs associated with providing an inmate granted medical parole with a public guardian.

• -Establishes that the Board of Parole Hearings will review each inmate after an inmate has been incarcerated for 3 years to review the inmate's file (Sec. 2):
• Specifies that 1 year before the inmate is eligible for parole that a panel of 3, consisting of only 1 deputy commissioner, will convene to set an exact date of parole within 120 days of the meeting.
• Requires that the Board of Parole Hearing approve the date that the panel decides on.
• Specifies that if there is no backlog for parole hearings that the board can be made up of a majority of commissioners.
• Specifies that an en banc review board shall reconcile a tie vote upon review of a recording of the hearing, explain the reasons for voting a certain way, and exclude any commissioner involved in the initial panel of the tie vote.

• Requires that prisoners who suffer from a significant and permanent condition, disease, or syndrome resulting in being physically or cognitivelydebilitated or incapacitated shall be granted medical parole if the Board of Parole Hearings determines that the conditions under which the prisoner would be released would not reasonably pose a threat to public safety (Sec. 3).

• Specifies that this medical parole would not be available to those inmates who are sentenced to death, life imprisonment without parole, or in which parole is prohibited by any initiative statute (Sec. 3).

• Specifies that the decision of whether to recommend a prisoner to the parole board for medical parole will be made by the inmate, the inmate's family, or the inmate's primary physician referring the case to the chief medical officer of the facility who will make the final determination of whether to recommend the inmate to the parole board for consideration (Sec. 3).

Full Bill Text