‘HOPELESS’: PAROLE DENIAL FOR ALABAMA WOMAN WITH TERMINAL ILLNESS HIGHLIGHTS INJUSTICE
Southern Poverty Law Center, April 7, 2023: ‘Hopeless’: Parole Denial for Alabama Woman with Terminal Illness Highlights Injustice
“The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles meets just 20 miles from the prison where Leola Harris, a 71-year-old woman in end-stage renal failure, has been incarcerated for 19 years. But for Harris, those 20 miles might as well be the moon, as far away as her chances of being released from prison before she dies.
“Harris was a first-time offender when she was convicted of murdering a friend in her home. She has been a model of good behavior inside the prison for the almost two decades she has served of a 35-year sentence.
“Harris uses a wheelchair for mobility and undergoes dialysis three times a week. She has diabetes. She is unable to go to the bathroom by herself and has spent extended periods in the infirmary of Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. A nursing home has agreed to take her to live out her final days. But in January, the parole board took just six minutes to deny her parole.
“Harris never traveled the 20 miles to the boardroom, where just two members of the three-member board made the decision because the other member was absent. In Alabama, unlike in every other state where parole hearings are held, incarcerated people aren’t permitted to attend their parole hearings, in person or virtually.
“While the Alabama Department of Corrections certified that Harris was eligible for medical parole, and both a registered nurse and case manager testified she should be released to the nursing home, the parole board took none of that, nor Harris’ nearly impeccable prison record, into consideration. Her next parole hearing is in 2028. Her attorneys say she will not live to see it.
“Under Alabama law, parole board denials are not subject to appeal.”
Additional reading:
Southern Poverty Law Center: Freedom Denied: The Unheard Voices Battling Alabama’s Parole Board
Scientific American, September 27, 2022: Dementia in Prison Is Turning into an Epidemic: The U.S. Penal System Is Badly Unprepared
AL.com, February 21, 2023: Alabama prisons won’t release elderly and ailing: ‘I sure did think I would die in there’
