Lake County prosecutors are unhapppy that a Lake County three-strikes convict who cannot move, eat or breathe on his own has been granted medical parole under a new law aimed at saving money.
Craig Lemke, 48, who suffers from brain tumors, is the first inmate to be granted medical parole under the new law.
He has a long criminal history that includes a series of home invasion robberies and stealing from his own grandmother to support a heroin habit. He began serving a 68-year prison sentence in 2007.
But his imprisonment in a medical facility requires a round-the-clock guard that is costing the state more than $2,000 a day.
Lake County Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, who argued against parole at Lemke's hearing on Wednesday, said medical paroles are a bad idea.
"This guy has a violent history. He doesn't deserve any more compassion than the victims he had through life," he said.
Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson said Thursday the "state is setting precedent for releasing violent felons."
Two more inmates, John Joseph Swesey, 72, of San Luis Obispo, who was convicted of making terrorist threats, and Juan Garcia Sandoval, a 78-year-old convicted killer, were granted medical paroles on Thursday.
They were on a list of 40 inmates being considered for parole because they have debilitating illnesses that prison officials say would
prevent them from being a danger to the public.
Medical paroles are expected to save the state millions of dollars by eliminating their guards and reducing health costs.
Even though he's immobile, Lemke has corrections officers stationed at all times outside his Central Valley hospital room at a cost of $2,123 a day. The officers will leave his bedside once his parole is finalized, corrections officials said.
Medical paroles in general are expected to reduce the amount the state pays for medical care, currently about $1,000 a day, by shifting more of it to Medicare.
Inmates' medical costs currently are split about 50-50 between the state and federal governments, said Nancy Kincaid, a California Prison Health Care Services spokeswoman. Over the next few years, the federal government's share is expected to increase to about 80 percent.
In cases where a family member can care for the parolees, the savings would be greater, Kincaid said.
Lemke's victims included his 77-year-old grandmother, whom he pushed to the floor and kept from phoning 911 as he robbed her to feed his heroin habit in 1990, Hinchcliff said.
In 1994, he held a man and his 15-year-old son at gunpoint in their home, tying them up and threatening to fire bomb their house if they told authorities.
His final robbery was in 2006. He and an accomplice hog tied an elderly couple he knew, ages 90 and 71, shoved guns in their faces and threatened to kill them.
Hinchcliff said there are other ways to achieve savings without granting parole to people like Lemke.
He said there are corrections rules requiring that as many as two guards watch one incapacitated, hospitalized inmate. Those rules could be changed if legislators had the political will to challenge the powerful corrections union, Hinchcliff said.
"Instead of changing their contract with the union, they're going to release this guy, basically," he said.
Neither corrections nor union officials with knowledge of how staffing rules are made could be reached Thursday.
Lake County Sheriff Frank Rivero said he agrees with the new law in principal, but doesn't think it should apply to Lemke.
Lemke reportedly has threatened his caretakers and potentially could get someone else to harm them, Rivero said.
"With this guy, I'm not so sure," he said.
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