Most compassionate release requests to the Bureau of Prisons are denied, even for people who are dying. The six cases below, reported in the news, show what those denials cost people in prison and their families.
The law, policies, and rules that allow a sentence reduction for extraordinary and compelling reasons have been in place for some time. Still, very few federal prisoners are granted compassionate release.
Looking at real compassionate release denials is hard, but it can be eye-opening. Seeing people die in federal prison because the Bureau failed to act, or acted wrongly, shows the human cost and the reason these programs exist.
These cases show how broken the Bureau’s compassionate release program has been.
Anthony Bell
Anthony Bell received a 16-year sentence for distributing cocaine. In October 2014, with one year left to serve, he applied for compassionate release. He had lupus and liver failure, and doctors gave him six months to live.
Six months later, the Bureau of Prisons denied his application, concluding that he had more than 18 months to live. Bell died two days later. His sister, Denise Littleford, told The New York Times that the Bureau dragged its feet.
“I begged them to please get him home,” said Littleford. “And while the blood was still warm in his body, instead of sending him home in a body bag.”
Irwin Schiff
Irwin Schiff was convicted of tax fraud. With his son’s help, he tried for two years to get compassionate release and was denied.
His son Andrew said goodbye to the dying 87-year-old at a federal medical facility. Schiff was unconscious and on a respirator, but still handcuffed to his hospital bed.
“There’s no humanity in here,” Andrew Schiff told The Times.
Wayne “Akbar” Pray
Pray had served nearly 30 years of a life sentence for his part in a large New Jersey cocaine operation when he applied for compassionate release in 2013. His Warden, the former and current mayors of Newark, NJ, the local NAACP, and several former Newark law enforcement members supported his request.
The Bureau denied the 69-year-old’s application, citing how serious his offense was and his conduct in prison. The Times noted that Pray’s last prison violation was 20 years earlier, for failing to follow sanitary rules.
Benjamin Share
Share, a non-violent, white-collar prisoner, was 85 when he had a heart attack. The Bureau denied his compassionate release application, then changed its mind a few months later after finding he had less than six months to live.
That delay cost Share and his family. He died within days of his release.
Michael Mahoney
In 1994, Michael Mahoney was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison under the Armed Career Criminal Act. His career criminal label came from several small drug sales to an undercover agent in the 1970s. Judge James D. Todd did not want to give him 15 years, but a mandatory minimum left him no choice.
Ten years later, Mahoney was dying of lymphoma at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. He applied for compassionate release, and his Warden agreed he should get a sentence reduction. The U.S. Attorney did not oppose it. Even so, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons denied the request, citing the “totality of the circumstances” and Mahoney’s “multiple felony convictions.”
When Judge Todd heard, he did something he had not done in 20 years on the bench. He wrote to the Director to say Mahoney’s case had troubled him since 1994, and that “a motion for [compassionate release] is the only way to mitigate in a very small way the harshness which [the Armed Career Criminal Act] has caused in this unusual and unfortunate case.”
The BOP never answered the judge’s letter, and Mahoney died in prison.
A man left in a near-vegetative state
In a 2013 report criticizing the Bureau’s handling of compassionate release, the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General described one especially troubling case.
In 2006, a prisoner who had a massive stroke and was in a near-vegetative state applied for compassionate release through someone else. His condition was not terminal, but he had to be fed through a tube, turned every two hours, helped with toileting, and bathed two to three times a week. He had no hope of recovery.
The Director approved the request. But because the condition was not terminal, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) weighed in: “Please be advised that ODAG does not concur with the proposed release of [the prisoner] at this time.”
Because of that opinion, release was denied. The prisoner stayed in prison, paralyzed on the right side, unable to speak, and needing total help with daily living.
What these cases mean for your family
These denials are only the tip of the iceberg. They show how far the Bureau of Prisons has gone to deny compassionate release requests, which is why it helps to have a lawyer on your side. Criminal Center handles compassionate release requests.
If you want help with a compassionate release request, book a consultation.