Federal Inmates Suffering From Unconstitutional Medical Neglect Could Get Relief Under Rule Change

Federal inmates suffering from unconstitutional medical neglect could get a new avenue for relief under changes being proposed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

This month the commission released a list of proposed amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines, and among them is a change that would broaden compassionate release, a policy that allows incarcerated people who are terminally ill or severely debilitated the mercy of spending their remaining days at home.

Specifically, the amendment would expand the qualifying circumstances for compassionate release to include incarcerated people “suffering from a medical condition that requires longterm or specialized medical care, without which the defendant is at risk of serious deterioration in health or death, that is not being provided in a timely or adequate manner.”

Despite the Eighth Amendment’s guarantee of basic hygiene and health care for incarcerated people, prisons and jails across the country regularly subject people to atrocious and humiliating neglect. For example, last year Reason reported how the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) allowed a man’s highly treatable colon cancer to progress until he was terminally ill, all while insisting in court that there was no evidence he had cancer and that he was receiving appropriate, timely care.

“Federal prisons have been unable or unwilling to get people the medical care they need,” says Kevin Ring, the president of FAMM, a criminal justice advocacy group. “The stories we hear on a regular basis are heartbreaking and infuriating. The commission’s proposal tells BOP and the courts to do better.”

The First Step Act of 2018 significantly expanded the availability of compassionate release by allowing judges to consider petitions. Previously, only the BOP had the authority to