Commentary: Is it Politic to Limit Our Compassion?

See Beck J.A. , “Compassionate Release from New York State Prisons: Why Are So Few Getting Out?,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 27 (1999): 216–33.

See Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 1998 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Justice, NCJ 173414, Mar. 1999): at 1. In 1985, 303 of every 100,000 U.S. residents were incarcerated in federal state prisons. See id. at 2.

See Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison (Washington, D.C.: Department of Justice, NCJ 160092, Mar. 1997): at 1.

See Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Justice, NCJ 172871, Jan. 1999): at 1.

See Hammett T.M. Harmon P. , and Rhodes W. , The Burden of Infectious Disease Among Inmates and Releasees from Correctional Facilities (1999) (unpublished) (prepared for the National Commission on Correctional Health Care/National Institutes of Justice).

For a discussion of the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome in prison population, see Greifinger R.B. Heywood N.J. , and Glaser J.B. , “Tuberculosis in Prisons: Balancing Justice and Public Health,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 21 (1993): 332–42, at 334.

See generally Dubler N.N. , “The Collision of Confinement and Care: End-of-Life Care in Prisons and Jails,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 26 (1998): 149–56.

N.Y. Exec. Law § 259-r (McKinney 1998).

See Greifinger Heywood , and Glaser , supra note 6, at 334.

See “Decreases in AIDS-Related Mortality in a State Correctional System—New York 1995–98,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, 47, no. 51/52 (1999): 1114–17.

Chronic diseases also pose significant health care issues for prisoners, in particular asthma, hypertension, diabetes, and epilepsy. A discussion of these issues is beyond this commentary. For a discussion, see Hornung C.A. Greifinger R.B. , and Gadre S. , A Projection Model of the Prevalence of Selected Chronic Diseases in the Inmate Population (Washington, D.C.: National Commission on Correctional Health Care/National Institutes of Justice, 1999).