Donate an organ, get out of jail?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2940289&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

According to this article South Carolina is considering a plan that would permit inmates who donate a kidney or bone marrow an early release. (180 days off their sentence.

I am not sure how I weigh in on this...


I am wondering if I wanted a kidney how I would feel if it came from some child molestor .... more over would I want to be responsible for the dirt ball getting out of prison early??
I don't think so but then again I would have to ask myself (hypothetically) if some single mother needs a kidney are her children safer with a living healthy mom and a predator on the streets or without a mom to defend them?


I am curious about what everyone thinks about this?

And, I think a donation of their brain should call for an immediate release from prison!!!!

Yeah, that's a toughie.

It's good to give folks a chance to do something good with their lives, but I would feel awful if someone got out early to give me a kidney, then they killed someone (or something like that.)

But, it's only 6 months, so if they were going to commit another crime anyway it's not likely that those last 6 months in prison were going to rehabilitate them or make much difference.

I do think that if it was an organ for a child of mine, I wouldn't care who donated it, or what strings had to be pulled to get it. So, I guess I'm a little biased there.

poco said:

And, I think a donation of their brain should call for an immediate release from prison!!!!

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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I really love the idea. Donating an organ means saving someone's life, and it's only 6 months - not all that early. There are a fair number of organs that can be donated by living donors, and save lives. Maybe there can even be something for a LWOP prisoner if they donate - some food, or other type of reward.

I too am split on this. I would guess that persons who had damaged organs due to drug use would be ineligible so that would rule out a lot of them. And there are a lot of people on the transplants lists- people who will die without the transplant. I guess if it came down to it- let one go free 6 months early or allow a person to die for lack of a transplant- I would have to go with allowing them early release. But make sure they got the organ prior to the release.
Remember Byron Perkins- released to donate a kidney to his son- absconded and still free, son did not get the kidney.
Destin did get a cadaver kidney months later, last report doing fine.

mysteriew said:

I too am split on this. I would guess that persons who had damaged organs due to drug use would be ineligible so that would rule out a lot of them. And there are a lot of people on the transplants lists- people who will die without the transplant. I guess if it came down to it- let one go free 6 months early or allow a person to die for lack of a transplant- I would have to go with allowing them early release.

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Also, I was under the impression that many inmates had hepatitis, HIV or other STD's, so blood related diseases would rule out even more...??? If that is true, wouldn't the available donor inmate population be even more significantly reduced.

Well, if they harvest the organ ON the new release date (which would be 6 months prior to the prisoner's original release date had they not "donated"), recovery time would help even out the difference!

Not all inmates are the worst of the worst - there's a bunch that are much more minor crimes, non-violent offenses, etc. I have a friend whose daughter's fiancee is in prison - he was involved with legally distributing medical marijuana - and of course, the feds disagree with state laws making what he was doing legal, so he was charged and convicted. Normal, standup guy, no drug use of his own - but he's now in jail.

In any case, 6 months - really not that much. Prison time is all about paying your debt to society - donating an organ seems to me an equivalent form of paying a debt to society.

I think it would be great for people that are in for non-violent crimes and are going to get out anyway. 100 or so days early to me for non-violent crimes wouldn't bother me a bit.

Details said:

I really love the idea. Donating an organ means saving someone's life, and it's only 6 months - not all that early. There are a fair number of organs that can be donated by living donors, and save lives. Maybe there can even be something for a LWOP prisoner if they donate - some food, or other type of reward.

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I love the idea as well. If someone needs an organ to live, who cares where it comes from. It also gives people who have taken from society a chance to give.

angelwngs said:

Also, I was under the impression that many inmates had hepatitis, HIV or other STD's, so blood related diseases would rule out even more...??? If that is true, wouldn't the available donor inmate population be even more significantly reduced.

Well, if they harvest the organ ON the new release date (which would be 6 months prior to the prisoner's original release date had they not "donated"), recovery time would help even out the difference!

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I have heard that people with HPV (genital warts) cannot even donate blood. I wonder if that's true.

I think prisoners donating organs is a good idea- giving back to society!

I'd like to see all people on death row across the country being given weapons and a one way ticket over to Iraq to finish up the war for us. It'd get our innocent men and women back home and all the sick f^cks on death row can fend for themselves in the war!

People who lived in Europe, or even visited certain European countries, are not allowed to be blood or organ donors either. So I'd say this plan is very discriminatory for criminals who have a history of travelling outside of the US. (Tongue-in-cheek here).

I doubt they can get the plan through because there are so many exceptions on who can be organ or blood donors... I'm sure some advocacy group or another will block this.

I'm also kind of undecided, leaning toward negative, about a different ethical question: they basically plan to buy the organs, albeit not in return for money, but in return for freedom. I wonder if this is even legal.

I'm not saying it's a stupid idea, I'm just saying (trying to anyway) that I see a lot of possible roadblocks for this plan.

Amraann said:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2940289&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

According to this article South Carolina is considering a plan that would permit inmates who donate a kidney or bone marrow an early release. (180 days off their sentence.

I am not sure how I weigh in on this...


I am wondering if I wanted a kidney how I would feel if it came from some child molestor .... more over would I want to be responsible for the dirt ball getting out of prison early??
I don't think so but then again I would have to ask myself (hypothetically) if some single mother needs a kidney are her children safer with a living healthy mom and a predator on the streets or without a mom to defend them?


I am curious about what everyone thinks about this?

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I don't have time to read the link, but if they're non-violent offenders, I support the program.

I would have no trouble taking an organ in exchange for an early out. I'm thinking if my family member/freind were going to die with out a transplant and an inmate was willing to give one for 6 months off go for it. First they will have to recover from the donation I hear giving is much more painful than getting an organ, the pain will do them good. Mainly it would increase dontion a lot of the people who would sign up would not be a match anyway but if someone I loved needed a transplant and someone in jail was the only match why not I also think "Details" had the right idea with letting them earn extra stuff for donation if they are not able to be released. So many people die waiting for a donation if this can help great I wonder why no one has thought of this before

First of all I think this program has great potential and I'm sure they are working on eligibility qualifications for the offenders. You all make it sound like all offenders will be eligible and keep forgetting that most won't even qualify due to their personal diseases and I'm sure, based upon their crimes. Violent offenders, I doubt would be eligible, and 6 months on their sentences, is nothing anyways.

Being a white collar felon that did spend a whole 45 days in prison and 45 days in jail. I think some of you are overlooking the fact that some folks sitting in prison are there for some pretty petty crimes. In my case, I was given 6 months home detention with the monitor and while I was at work, my bf came home with a case of beer. I wasn't there when my parole officer showed up to search my home, but I was violated anyways because he was drunk and alcohol was on my property and off to prison I went. It cost me my daughter, my home, my job and I had no priors for anything, not even parking tickets. My crime? I created phony payroll checks with my home pc and was asked to show the investigating officers how I did it, since my checks looked better than the originals, right down to the water marks and micro printing. I cooperated fully, as did the investigating officers, but local law enforcement had other ideas for me. In my area, once a person is placed on probation, they are lucky if they ever get off because the probation/parole officers will violate you for making eye contact and our local judge, funds his county with the $55 a day that he charges you to sit in his jail. Miss a payment and Go to jail, directly to jail and do not pass GO for an additional $55 a day. I was a lucky one and finally got out of the system here. 15 years later, I still can't find a decent job because they won't hire a felon, my daughter hates me and wants nothing to do with me since I destroyed "her" life, I'm blessed that my folks would give me a room in their home so I wouldn't be homeless and I don't qualify for any state assistance because I still live with them and I don't have any kids.

My apologlies for the rant there, but you folks spend so much time dealing with the serious crimes and the scum that commit them, and overlook that this program created for the folks that need marrow or organs. Not every felon out there is scum of the earth. Upon this felon's death, I am an organ donor; take what ya need, cremate me, and toss my ashes in the trash.

Spazkat9696 said:

I would have no trouble taking an organ in exchange for an early out. I'm thinking if my family member/freind were going to die with out a transplant and an inmate was willing to give one for 6 months off go for it. First they will have to recover from the donation I hear giving is much more painful than getting an organ, the pain will do them good. Mainly it would increase dontion a lot of the people who would sign up would not be a match anyway but if someone I loved needed a transplant and someone in jail was the only match why not I also think "Details" had the right idea with letting them earn extra stuff for donation if they are not able to be released. So many people die waiting for a donation if this can help great I wonder why no one has thought of this before

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I thought of it before, but back then, I was pro death penalty and I wasn't picky on what organs were donated and when - and certainly wasn't giving them any consent option. I backed off on the idea once I looked into the death penalty and saw that it wasn't the Jessica Lunsford killers that were on death row, necessarily, but people who really, really didn't all belong there.

It's still a most excellent idea, just not with MY implementation of it.

Meduza, thank you for sharing your story with us. I guess here we see the worst of the worst and that's the first thing a lot of us think of.

I'm for the program. As others have said, 6 months is not that much of a reduction and I'm sure there are people in prison who regret what they did and wish they could take it back. This might give them some way of repaying their karmic debt I guess you could say. Plus, there are SO many people on transplant waiting lists.

I don't think we should even have to ask!


If I had my way, we would be hacking parts from folks on death row, in exchange for nothing more than a color tv, cable or a fancy meal.

Meduza, although I appreciate you sharing your story, I don't appreciate you lumping every poster in this thread in your generalization of (quoting you) "You all make it sound like all offenders will be eligible and keep forgetting that most won't even qualify due to their personal diseases and I'm sure, based upon their crimes" and "but you folks spend so much time dealing with the serious crimes and the scum that commit them, and overlook that this program created for the folks that need marrow or organs". If you want to talk about fair, play fair.

Linda7NJ said:

I don't think we should even have to ask!


If I had my way, we would be hacking parts from folks on death row, in exchange for nothing more than a color tv, cable or a fancy meal.

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I used to think that too. I even said "You know, you can donate eyes and stuff and still live to keep the other organs fresh." So, I know where you are coming from - even though I no longer think that way, knowing what I know about death row. They mostly aren't the Jessica Lunsford murderer types - though if they WERE, I'd still agree with you!