What could go wrong?

California’s compassionate release law, despite the name, has very little to do with compassion. The 1997 bill that created it, sponsored by Antonio Villaraigosa when he was a state assemblyman, was mainly intended to save the state money because end-of-life medical care for inmates is extremely expensive. Letting them die outside prison walls doesn’t let the state completely off the hook, because freed inmates often still require government-sponsored medical care, but the state saves the cost of guarding and housing them. That’s also the rationale behind California’s medical parole law, a more recent variation under which non-terminal inmates may be let out of prison as long as they’re too incapacitated to present a public threat. Such policies make good financial sense without unduly risking public safety. But does that mean everybody should be eligible?

Gregory Powell, better known to L.A. history buffs and fans of novelist Joseph Wambaugh as the “Onion Field” killer, is going to die in prison. That’s fine with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the family of Powell’s victim and even Powell himself. But it does raise questions about the state’s “compassionate release” program and whether killers should be set free when their time is nearly up.