After 13 years in prison, Ronzell Richardson, 46, is getting out soon. His 20 years-to-life sentence for arson and other offenses hasn’t run out and he’s not up for parole until 2018. But Richardson, an inmate at the Walsh Regional Medical Unit within Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, has sarcoidosis and liver failure that eventually will kill him, according to prison staff who spoke with Richardson’s consent. Richardson was granted medical parole earlier this month.
Richardson, who cannot get out of bed without assistance, said he used to assume he would die in prison, an unhappy thought. “You would like to be around your family when you’re sick,” he said. As prisoners age in New York and across the country, officials are searching for innovative and affordable strategies to meet their health care needs. But a growing number of advocates are calling for greater use of an alternative strategy – releasing older and sick inmates.
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