Dead on Parole

I get so many great pieces just from the Sac Bee Op-Ed page . . . . here's one from today's . . . . I've taken the liberty to edit out a few sentences which aren't pertinent.

Twenty-five days after prison inmate Daniel Provencio was declared brain dead, the California Department of Corrections finally ended round-the-clock guarding and released the body to his family. That's the good news. But it occurred only after a bizarre precedent: The department got the Board of Prison Terms to parole the dead man. Normally, when a prisoner dies in Department of Corrections custody, the body goes first to the county coroner, then to the family.

In this case, however, public confusion over whether brain dead means "dead" or "in a coma" led to extremely odd conduct. Brain dead means dead - the complete, permanent, irreversible cessation of brain activity. The Department of Corrections did the family and the public a disservice in letting that confusion drag on far too long.

Members of Provencio's family told the media that doctors declared him brain dead the morning of Jan. 20. Yet the Department of Corrections continued to treat Provencio as alive when he was dead, shackling him by the ankles to his hospital bed and guarding him around the clock. The director of corrections finally ordered the shackles removed Feb. 4. But department spokesmen continued to describe Provencio as in such a "critical medical state" that they were having a difficult time finding a nursing home for him, as if Provencio were still alive. One spokesman said, "We've had no takers." That's not surprising. Not many nursing homes take dead people as patients.

We haven't seen the end of this bizarre saga.