{"id":20276,"date":"2025-01-17T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=20276"},"modified":"2025-01-17T10:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T10:23:37","slug":"sick-prisoners-in-new-york-were-granted-parole-but-remain-behind-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=20276","title":{"rendered":"Sick Prisoners in New York Were Granted Parole but Remain Behind Bars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prisons across the country are struggling to find nursing home placements for sick prisoners after granting them parole. In New York, some inmates are suing for release.<\/p>\n

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When the letter arrived at Westil Gonzalez\u2019s prison cell saying that he had been granted parole, he couldn\u2019t read it. Over the 33 years he had been locked up for murder, multiple sclerosis had taken much of his vision and left him reliant on a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

He had a clear sense of what he would do once freed. \u201cI want to give my testimony to a couple of young people who are out there, picking up guns,\u201d Mr. Gonzalez, 57, said in a recent interview. \u201cI want to save one person from what I\u2019ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n

But six months have passed, and Mr. Gonzalez is still incarcerated outside Buffalo, because the Department of Corrections has not found a nursing home that will accept him. Another New York inmate has been in the same limbo for 20 months. Others were released only after suing the state.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s elderly prison population is rising, partly because of more people serving long sentences for violent crimes. Nearly 16 percent of prisoners were over 55 in 2022<\/a>, up from 5 percent in 2007<\/a>. The share of prisoners over 65 quadrupled over the same time period, to about 4 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Complex and costly medical conditions require more nursing care, both in prison and after an inmate\u2019s release. Across the country, prison systems attempting to discharge inmates convicted of serious crimes often find themselves with few options. Nursing home beds can be hard to find even for those without criminal records.<\/p>\n

Spending on inmates\u2019 medical care is increasing \u2014 in New York, it has grown to just over $7,500<\/a> in 2021 from about $6,000 per person in 2012. Even so, those who work with the incarcerated say the money is often not enough to keep up with the growing share of older inmates who have chronic health problems.<\/p>\n

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Prisons across the country are struggling to find nursing home placements for sick prisoners after granting them parole. In New York, some inmates are suing for release.When the letter arrived at Westil Gonzalez\u2019s prison cell saying that he had been granted parole, he couldn\u2019t read it. Over the 33 years he had been locked up for murder, multiple sclerosis had taken much of his vision and left him reliant on a wheelchair.He had a clear sense of what he would do once freed. \u201cI want to give my testimony to a couple of young people who are out there, picking up guns,\u201d Mr. Gonzalez, 57, said in a recent interview. \u201cI want to save one person from what I\u2019ve been through.\u201dBut six months have passed, and Mr. Gonzalez is still incarcerated outside Buffalo, because the Department of Corrections has not found a nursing home that will accept him. Another New York inmate has been in the same limbo for 20 months. Others were released only after suing the state.America\u2019s elderly prison population is rising, partly because of more people serving long sentences for violent crimes. Nearly 16 percent of prisoners were over 55 in 2022, up from 5 percent in 2007. The share of prisoners over 65 quadrupled over the same time period, to about 4 percent.Complex and costly medical conditions require more nursing care, both in prison and after an inmate\u2019s release. Across the country, prison systems attempting to discharge inmates convicted of serious crimes often find themselves with few options. Nursing home beds can be hard to find even for those without criminal records.Spending on inmates\u2019 medical care is increasing \u2014 in New York, it has grown to just over $7,500 in 2021 from about $6,000 per person in 2012. Even so, those who work with the incarcerated say the money is often not enough to keep up with the growing share of older inmates who have chronic health problems.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20278,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20279,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20276\/revisions\/20279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}