Parole board denies medical furlough to prisoner
BATON ROUGE — The state parole board voted Thursday to deny a temporary medical furlough Thursday to one of the first prisoners to be considered since a law creating the program took effect in November.
Department of Corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick said the parole board voted unanimously to deny Clyde Giddens’ request to receive medical treatment outside of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where he is currently housed.
Giddens pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1964 for the grisly killing and dismemberment of Earline Bamburg. He is serving a life sentence.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., wrote an open letter to the parole board Wednesday urging it to deny Giddens’ furlough and decrying the policy change that made him eligible for consideration.
“Gov. Edwards’ so-called criminal justice reform package gave Mr. Giddens an undeserved gift by making limited-mobility offenders eligible for medical treatment furloughs,” Kennedy wrote. He added that the wishes of the victim’s family should carry greater weight than the state’s attempts to “save a few nickels on medical expenses.”
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Act 280, which was authored by a Republican state senator and passed with bipartisan support, modeled the new medical furlough program after the existing medical parole program but expanded the eligibility.
The medical furlough program allows the consideration of “limited-mobility offenders,” such as inmates who are bedridden or have to use wheelchairs, instead of requiring that applicants be “permanently disabled” or “terminally ill.”
Neither provision is available to offenders facing execution.
The law requires that the parole board consider whether the offender presents a risk to society or himself. Offenders released under the program are placed in designated, off-site medical facilities, like acute care hospitals and nursing homes, and subject to reincarceration if their conditions improve above the standards for eligibility.
The program was one part of a 10-bill criminal justice overhaul that was passed by the Legislature last summer to reduce the state’s high incarceration rate and costs.
Kennedy has consistently criticized Edwards’ criminal justice reform efforts, saying the measures put the public at risk.
“I am thankful that common sense prevailed and that the Louisiana Committee on Parole prioritized public safety and the victim’s suffering,” Kennedy said in a press release after the decision Thursday.