Budget Amendment ID: FY2015-S4-628

EPS 628

Extraordinary Medical Placement in Middlesex County

Ms. Jehlen moved that the proposed new text be amended moved that the bill be amended by inserting the following section:-

"SECTION XX. The Middlesex Sheriff’s Office shall operate a medical release pilot program.  The court may grant a medical release to a prisoner held by the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office upon the court’s determination that the prisoner has an irreversible condition, disease or syndrome that is terminal, debilitating, or incapacitating and that the prisoner’s release will not be incompatible with public safety. The authority to grant a medical release rests solely within the discretion of the court. No prisoner has the right to medical release.  Consideration of a prisoner for medical release may be initiated by the sheriff, the superintendent of a house of correction, the superintendent of the jail, special sheriff, a licensed physician, the prisoner, a member of the prisoner’s family, or the prisoner’s attorney.   In determining whether to grant a medical release, the court shall obtain the review of a licensed physician. The sheriff shall facilitate appropriate community placement for prisoners granted a medical release. A person granted medical release under this section shall be under the jurisdiction, supervision and control of the court. The sheriff shall impose terms and conditions for such release. The sheriff may revise, alter or amend such terms and conditions at any time.

The Middlesex Sheriff’s Office shall file an annual report by July 1 of each year with Joint Committee on the Judiciary and the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security.  This report shall include, at a minimum, data about the number of individuals considered for release, the number of individuals released, the medical condition of each individual released, the current residence of all individuals released, any violations of the conditions of release by any individual released, and an estimate of any health care cost savings resulting from the medical release program.”