FLAWS IN THE PENAL SYSTEM

'Let My Dying Mom Out of Prison'

"I don't want my mommy to die in that place by herself. I want her to
come home first so we can hug her and take lots of pictures together.
Will you please let her come home before God takes her to His home?
Please?" -- Karma Dias, 10

During the holidays, Karma Dias, like most of us, will be spending
time with her family and loved ones. But unless a judge shows
compassion, Karma's mother will not be there, because she is dying in
prison.

The state could save hundreds of thousands by sending Karma's mother,
and others like her, home. After all, it can cost a small fortune to
keep a terminally ill person in prison. As our state fights the worst
budget crisis in its history, taxpayers are carrying the burden of
keeping dying, medically incapacitated people locked away from their
families. Meanwhile, the budget for the Department of Corrections
budget has been spared from any cuts.

Karma's mother, Beverly Dias, 51, is dying at Valley State Prison for
Women in Chowchilla (Madera County). She has 20 months left on a
6-year sentence for possession of 6.3 grams of cocaine. Dias is
suffering from a combination of liver cancer and cirrhosis of the
liver caused by hepatitis C. The only treatment remaining for her is
to undergo a liver transplant. But she has been denied transplant
eligibility by the transplant team at the University of California at
Davis. No female prisoner in the history of California has ever been
allowed to obtain an organ transplant. Without the transplant, doctors
have declared that Dias will die in the next six months.

Dias is in constant pain and requires significant pain medication to
function at a very basic level. She is constantly fatigued and sleeps
14 or 15 hours a day. She is so incapacitated that she is unable to
walk to the cafeteria for meals, instead relying on cellmates to bring
food for her.

Working with our nonprofit organization, Dias applied to get out of
prison early under California's compassionate release law, which
allows the early release of prisoners who have less than six months to
live and who pose no threat to society. The intent of this law is to
allow prisoners to spend their last days with their families and not
alone in prison.

Last week, after previously denying her release, the director of the
California Department of Corrections, Edward Alameida, reconsidered
and recommended Dias for compassionate release. We credit his change
of heart to widespread support from the community. Now it is all in
the hands of the judge who originally sentenced Dias, Rene Navarro, to
approve her release; the case will be decided Friday.

The plea of Beverly's daughter Karma is the plea of all children who
wish for their parents to come home to die. We are working with dozens
of other women who will die in prison. Their prospects of spending
their last days at home are minuscule. In the past two months, two
terminally ill women whom we worked with have died in the custody of
the corrections department, despite qualifying for compassionate
release. They died hospitalized and bed ridden, shackled to their beds
and guarded 24 hours a day by security officers earning overtime pay.
These deaths followed a 10-day period in July, when three other women
we represented died in similar fashion.

Denying terminally ill women in prison the chance to spend their last
days with their families is unacceptable and thwarts the intent behind
the compassionate release law.

Beverly Dias' story, while one of hope, highlights our prison system's
illogical policies that result in enormous waste of money and human
potential. The fact that our state is spending scarce resources to
confine dying prisoners is especially troublesome in these rough
economic times.

The approaching holiday season is a time for family, compassion and
goodwill. At this time, Dias needs to go home. It is cruel and
inhumane to deny a 10-year-old child's simple wish that her mother
come home to die.