Leslie Boyd • LBoyd@CITIZEN-TIMES.com • published August 16, 2008 12:15 am

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880815148

Disabled inmate dumped at shelter after discharge

ASHEVILLE – U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials confirmed Friday that a severely disabled man discharged from federal prison in South Carolina was released to a downtown homeless shelter despite his need for medical care.

Michael Ray McHone was in a wheelchair and not able to speak clearly. He eventually was taken to Mission Hospitals, where he remained in fair condition Friday evening.

McHone was dropped off in front of the Western Carolina Rescue Mission about 10 a.m. Aug. 9. The mission doesn’t open until 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

He had been released from prison in Edgefield, S.C., on Aug. 8 and spent the night in a motel before being taken by a prison worker to Asheville.

Advocates for the homeless say jails, prisons and psychiatric hospitals routinely release people to the streets or homeless shelters, and the number is increasing.

“I’ve never seen national statistics,” said Michael Stoops, interim executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington. “But we are trying to work with various jurisdictions to change the laws on releasing people to the streets or to shelters.”

Massachusetts already has passed a law making it illegal to release someone to a shelter unless arrangements have been made in advance, Stoops said.

At A-Hope, which is a day program, an average of a half-dozen people a month are discharged from jails, prisons or psychiatric hospitals to the front door, said Amanda Thomas, assistant director.

The driver of the van that dropped McHone off was an employee of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. When told the mission wouldn’t open for another six hours, he pushed McHone’s wheelchair about two blocks to A-Hope, which is open until noon on Saturdays.

McHone was convicted of aiding and abetting an escape in January 1990, said Beattie Logan, head of the U.S. Probation Office in Asheville.

He had been at the federal prison in Edgefield since June 2004, said Rita Teel, spokeswoman for the Southeast Division of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

“Usually, prisoners are released to the district where they were convicted,” Teel said. “When an inmate leaves custody, we can’t compel him to accept help ... (or) keep him past his release date.”

Inmates are assigned case managers who help them plan for their release, and most either have family to return to, or they go to a halfway house, Teel said.

But McHone was so disabled he couldn’t move his own wheelchair or speak clearly, said Bryan Landis, one of three staff members on duty at A-Hope that morning.

“It was pretty easy to take one look at him and know he wasn’t going to be able to take care of himself, even in a shelter,” Landis said.

Landis said McHone had been told to contact his case manager on Monday, but he was too weak to be out on his own until then.

“He was bad,” A-Hope employee John Hairston said. “I don’t care what crime he committed. He didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

Landis placed a call to the Buncombe County Department of Social Services, but the on-call social worker said she needed to talk to a supervisor.

Thomas said Landis called her, and she also called DSS, but by noon, DSS had not made a decision.

“We close at noon on Saturdays, and there was no way we were equipped to take care of someone with that level of disability,” she said.

Finally, Landis called 911 to have McHone taken to the hospital.