Maryland among the ‘worst’ states for releasing aging or sick prisoners. Is reform coming?

With his Type 2 diabetes unchecked, Donald Brown’s health deteriorated while serving time for armed robbery at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland. Vivian Penda said her son was a good person — intelligent, happy-go-lucky and mild-mannered. But at 15, he started using heroin and became wrapped up in addiction and petty crime, she said. Thirty-five years into his sentence, Brown fell in the prison infirmary, fracturing a hip and suffering a brain bleed. He also endured a stroke. And doctors amputated his leg due to an infection.