Sergio Hyland says the trouble with the longest prison sentences — life, or stretches that amount to life — is that after a while, they punish people who no longer exist.
No 41-year-old is the same as his 19-year-old self, he said, offering himself as an example. Hyland at 19, an angry and aimless Philadelphian, shot a friend and went to state prison. Hyland at 41, free since February after more than two decades as an inmate at a series of state prisons, is a thoughtful and friendly man. And he is deep into activism, as an organizer for the progressive Working Families Party in Philadelphia and a voice for the incarcerated.
“I’m the opposite of what I was,” Hyland said Wednesday, after firing up activists who rallied outside the Lehigh County Courthouse to urge compassionate release for elderly and ailing prisoners serving life sentences or very lengthy terms.
The primary aim of this campaign by prison reformers, faith leaders, civil rights activists and relatives of prisoners is passage of Senate Bill 835, introduced last year by state Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia.
The bill proposes allowing prisoners to seek parole if they are seriously ill or if they are at least 55 and have served either 25 years or half their minimum sentence. The parole board must also find the prisoner is not a danger to the public.
Street cited the high COVID-19 death rate among prisoners 50 and older as one reason for the bill, which has bipartisan support.
Pennsylvania has about 8,200 inmates serving life sentences or sentences of 50 years or more. Beyond rescuing some long-reformed people from “death by incarceration,” activists say, the bill would ease pressure on the prison system and allow some of the $2 billion annual corrections budget to be routed into programs for affordable housing and anti-violence.
The activists, who refer to the proposed law as “geriatric parole,” demonstrated outside the courthouse because it houses the offices of Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin. They are asking him, and all other district attorneys, to support the legislation.
“Pennsylvania is turning prisons into private nursing homes and doing so at a tremendous cost,” said Joan Sehl of Bern Township, Berks County, whose childhood friend has been in prison for 45 years on a first-degree murder conviction and is now 74.
“He is not defined now by who he was 50 years ago, but rather by who he has matured into: a thoughtful, intelligent, caring man,” Sehl said.
It costs around $50,000 per year to incarcerate someone in Pennsylvania, but those costs can rise dramatically for prisoners who need medical treatment.
“We say bring low-risk, elderly incarcerated people home and invest that money in anti-violence programs that will actually increase public safety,” Sehl said.
The rally was co-sponsored by the Amistad Law Project, the ACLU of PA, the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration-Lehigh Valley Chapter, Lehigh Valley Stands Up, POWER Lehigh Valley, Straight Ahead and Make the Road PA.
“We need leaders to support pathways home for elderly prisoners,” said Sean Damon of Amistad, a law firm working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania.
“We are all products of second chances,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Goudy, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. “Geriatric parole is all about second chances and we call on DA Jim Martin to embrace second chances.”
Martin issued a statement noting he had received a letter from the activists asking him to lobby for the bill.
“I am not a lobbyist and to the extent there are matters before the legislature involving criminal justice, I rely upon the Legislative Unit of the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association, of which I was proud to serve as president in 2007,” he said.
“I have forwarded the letter I received to the Association. To the extent to which the matter is discussed within the ranks of the District Attorney’s Association, I will participate in such discussions. Most likely I will support the position, if any, that the Association takes with respect to this matter,” he said.
Martin said his office is frequently contacted by the state parole board and board of pardons for information about cases.
“We investigate the background and circumstances of the cases and individuals involved and respond appropriately to both boards,” he wrote.
Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com.
