compassionate release
Humanitarian prison discharge
Compassionate release is the early discharge of a prisoner on humanitarian grounds, typically when they are terminally ill or severely incapacitated.
The justification is that continued imprisonment serves no purpose when someone poses no threat and will likely die in custody: He was granted compassionate release after his cancer diagnosis.
The term also applies in medical contexts to allowing access to experimental treatments not yet approved.
- mercyCompassion toward offenders
- pardonOfficial release from punishment
- clemencyMerciful treatment of offenders
- terminalAt the endpoint
- terminal illnessIncurable, deadly medical condition
hospice · dying · prison · inmate · humanitarian · freedom · petition · prison system · behind bars · sentence · illness · warden · life sentence · appeal · medical · forgiveness · dignity · end-of-life
- penologypenology, prisons, incarceration, parole board, prison
- clemencypardon, amnesty, clemency, reprieve, commutation
- legal appealslegal appeal, appeal process, appeals court, appeal courts, higher court
- prison servicescommissary, visitation, medical care, reentry programs, education programs
compassionate releaseincarceration
Confinement in jail
imprisonment · remand · reincarceration · custody · commitment
compassionate releaselife without parole
Incarceration until death
indefinite detention · solitary confinement · lockdown · remand · pretrial detention
compassion, compassionate, compassionately, compass, passion, passionate, passionately, passions, patient