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| Montana prison misplaced a dying inmate's parole request |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/19/2003 |
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Montana State Prison officials misplaced a dying inmate's request for medical parole, a yearlong oversight that left Roy Link behind bars where his medical costs have mounted. Although the prison's medical director said Link should be considered for early release due to his failing health, that recommendation never made it to the desk of Warden Mike Mahoney or the state Board of Pardons and Parole for review, said Cheryl Bolton, Mahoney's administrative officer. Prison officials have since changed the way they handle inmates' requests for early release due to medical condition, hoping to prevent such applications from getting lost or forgotten. Cathy Redfern, administrator of health services at the prison, said a new form for processing and tracking medical parole requests had been in the works for about six months and was approved just days before an Associated Press story detailed Link's situation. 'The medical parole process has been a concern of ours for a while,' she said. A new application for Link has been prepared and is expected to be before the warden this week said Julie Reardon, managed care coordinator for the Corrections Department. If approved, the Board of Pardons could act as early as its October meeting. Link, serving a 25-year sentence for helping his sister murder their stepfather in 1996, submitted his request for medical parole in early August 2002. It got lost in the prison's bureaucratic system. 'Did we lose it? Did someone mess up in following through on the process? I don't know,' said Linda Moodry, prison spokeswoman. As a result, the Board of Pardons never had the chance to decide if Link should be released before his normal parole eligibility date of December 2005. In a letter to Associated Press, Link, 63, said he wants to be paroled because he is terminally ill and can barely function. Bolton said Warden Mahoney never received Rantz's recommendation. Link, after not getting a response to his request, sent another copy of the application to Bill Slaughter, Corrections Department director. Bolton said that was returned to the prison to go through the proper channels. But, like Link's first request, that too cannot be found. |
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