Medical Furloughs for Prisoners in the News Again - Think Hershel Graham!

ProPublica is an organization that investigates abuses of power. Its latest research delves into county sheriffs who release violent inmates in order to save money on medical expenses: Release of Violent Offenders.

County sheriffs are not the only ones participating in this behavior. The Alabama Department of Corrections also releases prisoners on compassionate medical furlough, ostensibly to go home to die. Only sometimes the prisoners don't die.

Meet Hershel Dale Graham:

1. In November 2011, Graham shot an unarmed man on property belonging to Graham's father.

2. Graham was eventually indicted for Felony Murder; in 2015, a jury convicted him of First Degree Manslaughter with enhanced sentencing due to the use of a gun.

3. While Graham could have been sentenced to up to 20 years, the morbidly obese Red Bay man was sentenced to only two actual years to serve.

4. Once in prison, Graham never left the infirmary due to his many alleged medical conditions. 

5. The ADOC suggested sending Graham home to die, and a Franklin County judge approved the move with the condition if Graham didn't die within a set time frame, he would return to prison to finish the eight months remaining on his sentence.

6. Graham returned to Red Bay in August 2016. Supposedly under intense supervision, he began to roam Franklin County freely. It's now almost 2020, and the murderer of David Andrasik is still very much alive and still very much free.

Apparently it's not only school systems that pass the trash, but county and state corrections as well.

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