Released To Die: Episode 2

Summary

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Suave: Released To Die – Episode 2

Podcast: Suave
Host: Futuro Media
Episode Title: Released to Die: Episode 2
Release Date: June 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

This second episode in the “Released to Die” mini-series pivots to the powerful story of Michi (Marie Scott), one of the few women to survive a half-century behind bars and then be granted her freedom. While the series centers on Frank Ross, a 93-year-old man freed via Pennsylvania’s compassionate release program, this episode offers a deep, unflinching look at aging and illness behind bars—especially for women like Michi. Her journey exposes systemic failures in prison healthcare, the burden of trauma and addiction among incarcerated women, and the immense challenges of reentry after finally being released.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Introduction to Michi’s Story and the Context of Women Aging in Prison

• Strong focus on the special hardships faced by elderly incarcerated women: under-studied, rapidly growing imprisoned population (06:36).
• The episode gives a warning about mentions of sexual assault.
• Julieta Martinelli transitions away from Frank Ross’ story to follow Michi’s:
  • “Her experience was similar to Frank’s, but being a woman made those health challenges even tougher to navigate in prison.” (05:16)

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2. Michi’s Past: Childhood Trauma and the Road to Incarceration

• Michi offers a candid account of her troubled youth:
  • Sexual abuse by family and neighbor (09:25–10:00).
    • “I learned how to jump out of second floor windows because he would pick my lock and I couldn’t keep him out.” (09:25, Michi)
    • “He said, if you scream, I'll kill you. And I didn't scream.” (10:00, Michi)
• Entrapment in addiction, homelessness, and violence as a teenager:
  • “The worst - don't nobody tell you, hey, this is heron... You’re going to need it after three days, and then you’re going to start feeling sick, dope sick.” (10:25, Michi)
  • “I got shot, I got stabbed, I got sodomized. I got everything that could happen to somebody that young. If you're homeless in New York, you’re going to get raped. That's par for the course.” (10:41, Michi)
• Forced to give up custody of her son due to her addiction (11:00).

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3. The Crime and Sentencing

• Michi describes how, at 19, she was drawn into a robbery-turned-murder by a man who had protected her:
  • “If he saves my life, how you think I feel? He's a hero. So 10 days later, when he asked me to go on a robbery with him, I said… yes.” (12:14, Michi)
• She details the crime and her feelings of responsibility, even though she wasn’t the shooter:
  • “That man lost his life for $87.” (14:33, Michi)
  • “No money... would be worth taking somebody’s life. Even though I didn’t kill him, I’m responsible for his death.” (14:58, Michi)
• Both she and the actual shooter, Leroy Saxton, received life sentences (15:30).
  • “I'm not a killer, but I'm in jail for first degree murder.” (15:53, Michi)

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4. Adapting to Prison Life, Motherhood, and Trauma

• Michi struggled with the adjustment, escaping several times and giving birth in shackles (18:33).
  • “I had a little girl... I never got to raise her.” (18:33, Michi)
  • She asked the aunt who raised her daughter to let the child call her “mom,” so her own daughter wouldn’t feel the abandonment Michi herself felt as a child (18:45).
• Therapy inside gave Michi her first opportunity to voice the pain and shame that haunted her (19:08).
  • “Loathed myself for what I did.... But I am also a person of good. Today, I am a person of good.” (19:29, Michi)
• Michi achieved over 30 years of sobriety in prison and made it her mission to help others.

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5. Healthcare for Older Women in Prison: Michi’s Battle with Cancer

• Years of poor healthcare: severe sciatica from hard mattresses, poor nutrition, little access to outdoors or doctors, and a culture of self-reliance among incarcerated women (03:09–03:43).
  • “Plenty of women that died of cancer in there and died shortly thereafter.” (03:43, Michi)
• Michi’s breast cancer diagnosis:
  • “Paid my $5. I said, look, a knot just popped up on me overnight. I need a check for cancer... It took them like a month to put me on the list for ultrasound.” (21:55, Michi)
• Delays, skepticism, and the need to push for proper diagnosis and outside oncologist:
  • “They finally came back a month later and took me out to see the oncologist... 'I’m sorry to tell you you have breast cancer.'” (22:24, Michi)
• Chemotherapy, double mastectomy, and ongoing struggle to access adequate care:
  • “I said, just take the other one too. I don't want either one of them because I don't ever want to go through what I went through trying to get rid of breast cancer.” (23:59, Michi)
  • “So now I don't have any breasts, but I don't want cancer coming up in me...” (24:16, Michi)
• Michi advocated for younger incarcerated women to be assertive about their own health needs:
  • “You gotta speak up for yourself. Tell 'em you want more than a mammogram.... If they do tell you that, let me know.” (24:40, Michi)

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6. The Private Prison Healthcare Crisis

• Michi’s friend Terry shares her own experience:
  • “I've had seven surgeries in 15 years… The healthcare system that they bought into sucks.” (25:23–26:05, Terry)
  • “Took me five years to get permission just to even pay for my own shoes… Everything is so cookie cutter, in and out, quick, quick, quick. They don’t listen.” (27:04–27:36, Terry)

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7. Release and the Difficult Transition to Freedom

• Michi was finally granted commutation and released in January 2026, after 53 years (28:27).
  • “I’m supposed to be on medicine for the rest of my life… So who's to say it's not gonna pop up somewhere else?” (28:27, Michi)
• The struggle to access medication and medical care on the outside:
  • “I haven't taken my medication in over two weeks. Now that I’m free, it’s my responsibility… I don't know how to take care of medical needs. I'm learning.” (28:54, Michi)
• The overwhelming wonder at mundane freedoms:
  • “Everything is animated. That's the best way I can explain coming out into freedom after being so long… Life was a deferred dream until I woke up outside.” (29:51, Michi)
• Adjusting to society, reuniting with family, and paying forward her wisdom; she hopes her story will help drive reform for aging incarcerated people in Pennsylvania (31:25–31:56).

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8. Advocacy and Path Forward

• The episode concludes with ongoing reform efforts in Pennsylvania to improve and expand compassionate release and medical transfers for elderly, ill prisoners (31:56).
• A preview for the final episode: new challenges arise for Frank Ross, including a petition to revoke his compassionate release (32:29).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Right now it doesn't even feel like I have feet because everything I do is float. You know, it’s on a float. And things that I see that people take for granted is huge to me.”
  — Michi (Marie Scott), on freedom after 53 years (29:32)

• “If you homeless in New York, you're going to get raped. That's par for the course.”
  — Michi (Marie Scott), on brutal realities of her youth (10:41)

• “No money, no nothing would be worth taking somebody’s life. I can tell you that even though I didn’t kill him, I’m responsible for his death. And I can tell you what it feels like to be responsible for killing somebody.”
  — Michi (Marie Scott), reflecting on accountability (14:58)

• “There is no health care, you know. The people come to play doctor on us.”
  — Michi (Marie Scott), on prison healthcare (21:07)

• “It took me five years to get permission just to even pay for my own shoes… Everything is so cookie cutter, in and out, quick, quick, quick. They don’t listen.”
  — Terry, on private prison healthcare (27:04–27:36)

• “Life was a deferred dream until I woke up outside, you know.”
  — Michi (Marie Scott), on reentry (30:49)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Description | |-----------|-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:46–02:28 | Introduction to Michi | Michi, her age, release, and years in prison | | 03:09–04:25 | Health in Prison | Sciatica, nutrition, lack of care | | 08:44–11:15 | Michi’s Youth & Childhood Trauma| Family history, sexual abuse, addiction | | 12:14–13:56 | The Crime & Aftermath | The robbery gone wrong and Michi’s reflections | | 18:13–19:59 | Prison Life, Therapy, and Recovery| Life in prison, giving birth, therapy, 30 years sober | | 21:07–22:44 | Prison Healthcare Breakdown | Diagnosing cancer, systemic neglect | | 24:52–27:36 | Private Healthcare & Terry's Story| Terry’s experiences, private healthcare in prison | | 28:27–29:17 | Reentry Struggles | Medication gaps, navigating healthcare on outside | | 29:32–31:25 | Awe of Freedom | Michi’s wonder at ordinary life post-release | | 31:25–31:56 | Current Life and Advocacy | Back on meds, family, support for prison healthcare reform | | 32:29 | Preview of next episode | New legal challenge for Frank Ross |

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Final Thoughts

Through Michi’s unsparing honesty and resilience, this episode draws out the devastating impact of trauma, addiction, neglect, and a dysfunctional American prison system—especially for aging women. Her survival and eventual release reveal cracks in the system, as well as moments of hope and the complexity of redemption. The episode closes with signals of advocacy and action, urging attention to the fate of people aging inside America’s prisons.

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Transcript

[Julieta Martinelli]

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[Narrator/Reporter]

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[Michi (Marie Scott)]

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[Julieta Martinelli]

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[Michi (Marie Scott)]

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[Narrator/Reporter]

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[Rosie Perez]

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[Narrator/Reporter]

A few months after Frank Ross is released from prison on compassionate release, we meet a woman named Marie Scott. But she doesn't use that name very often.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I'm so used to the police calling me Marie Scott till I don't even use that unless I have to be talking to a cop for decades.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Now she's gone by Michi. Michi is 72 years old. She was sentenced to life in prison at just 19 years old, and she spent more than half a century at a women's prison in Pennsylvania. In January of 2026, she was given a second chance.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

So I'm free after doing 53 years in prison and right now it doesn't even feel like I have feet because everything I do is flo.

[Narrator/Reporter]

She's now getting adjusted to her new life. But before she was released, Miche says she spent years dealing with health issues inside the prison. It started with painful sciatica that made it hard to walk. She thinks this was from decades of sleeping on a hard prison mattress.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Sciatica hit my right leg and I dragged it until forever. And that kind of pain when you have a sciatic attack, people don't understand. That's the kind of pain that makes you holler.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Coupled with decades of prison meals, lacking in nutrition, limited access to the outdoors, and little access to doctors, Miche's health issues grew. She says she also worried about cancer. She saw so many women inside the prison getting diagnosed with when it was already too late.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Plenty of women that died of cancer in there and died shortly thereafter.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And there is something to her observation, a recent study from the National Institute of Health found that women in prison are more likely to develop some kinds of cancer and they're also more likely to die because of it. Michi didn't have this information then, but she says the women at Munsee didn't trust the prison to take their health concerns seriously. So they kept tabs on their own bodies, their own health. One day, Miche found a lump in her breast and she pushed to see a doctor.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And he said, Ms. Scott? I said, yeah. He said, I'm sorry to tell you you have breast cancer.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Michi says she fought cancer behind bars at the same time that she applied for commutation. That's a process that requires governor approval and that basically suspends the rest of a person's sentence. Eventually, Michi was granted her freedom. She was released just two days before Frank Ross in January of 2026.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I'm just so glad that I'm still alive while I'm out here. I got free. Being free is one thing, but staying alive is another. And that's what I'm trying to do, stay alive.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Miche's story would soon paint a vivid picture of what growing old and getting sick in prison feels like. How similar her experience was to Frank's, and how being a woman can make those health challenges somehow even tougher to navigate in prison.

[Julieta Martinelli]

From Futuro media and Latino USA, I'm Julieta Martinelli. This is Release to Die Part 2. In this three episode miniseries, we follow Frank Ross, a 93 year old man sentenced to die in prison, and his journey to the outside through compassionate release. Frank's case highlights one of the fastest growing trends in incarceration in the U.S. something that experts call the graying of American prisons. We also take a deep dive into Pennsylvania's compassionate release program. How healthcare inside prisons is failing older people and what it means to have a chance to die.

[Narrator/Reporter]

For this episode, we're going to step away temporarily from Frank's story and we're going to hear about Miche's experience and the particular challenges that face women who are getting older and getting sick in prison. Now, it's undeniable that we know less about the experiences of women behind bars. Part of that is because women make up a smaller percentage of the incarcerated population across the board in both federal and state prisons. The Prison Policy Initiative says that about 10% of people in prison are women. But just as the number of aging people behind bars is growing rapidly, so is the number of women. According to a study by the Pennsylvania Reentry Coalition, the rate of incarceration for women rose more than 50% faster than that of men between 1980 and and 2014. That's why experts say it's important to understand how both gender and age play a part in healthcare needs and why reform aimed at reducing the number of elderly, incarcerated people is actually really important. And also Dear Listener, a warning There are mentions of sexual assault, so take care. Senior producer Julieta Martinelli picks up the story from here.

[Julieta Martinelli]

A few weeks after her release, on a dark, rainy morning in April, Suave, Michi and I meet at Community College of Philadelphia, where Suave works. We sit down together in a classroom. Michi is short, or maybe she looks shorter than she actually is. She's crouched over a walker that she now needs to be mobile. She is a black woman with light skin and a bald head. She has this great big friendly smile with a gap between her front teeth. On this day, she's wearing a matching sweatsuit, sneakers and a silver chain. She's got style. Before we get into her cancer diagnosis in prison, Michi asks if we can take a detour to talk about her past.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, three blocks from the Isley Brothers. We all grew up together, going between Teaneck, New Jersey, Topeka, Kansas and Orlando, Florida. Those are the places that I grew up.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi lived with her dad. Her mom had passed away when she was young and she says her father's girlfriend just didn't like having her around, so she was shuffled around the family. At some point, Michi says that she and her older sister ended up losing living with an aunt. Michi says that her sister was sexually assaulted by their uncle and later so was she.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I learned how to jump out of second floor windows because he would pick my lock and I couldn't keep him out of my room.

[Julieta Martinelli]

When she got older, Michi says she gathered the courage to tell her aunt,

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

you know, I wasn't like, let this motherfucker come in here again and I'll kill her. I didn't have the killer effect. I was only 5, 6, 7. It went on till I was 15 years old.

[Julieta Martinelli]

She says nothing really came of it. Michi felt ashamed. Later, when staying with her grandfather, she says she was molested by a neighbor.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And he said, if you scream, I'll kill you. And I didn't scream.

[Julieta Martinelli]

By 16, Michi had a baby. By 17, she had run away. In the streets, she says she was introduced to all kinds of things, but

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

the worst don't nobody tell you, hey, this is heron. You take this, you're gonna throw up and not liking it first, but after that, you. You're going to need it after three days, and then you're going to start feeling sick, dope sick.

[Julieta Martinelli]

That's exactly what happened.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I got shot, I got stabbed, I got sodomized. I got everything that could happen to somebody that young. If you homeless in New York, you're going to get raped. That's par for the course.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Without support and now fighting an addiction, Michi says that she decided to give up custody of her son.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And I could not figure out how I was going to take care of my son the right way. I had to give him up because my desire to get that sickness off of me was greater than the need that I needed to take care of my son. I couldn't think logically.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Eventually, she says, she was able to get clean. Her father told her to return to Philadelphia.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And that was the worst thing that could have happened to me.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Moving back to Philadelphia would change her life forever. Not long after she moved back home, Michi says that her father's girlfriend once again kicked her out. She took the first job she found at a restaurant. One night, while working the cash register at the front, Michi says that her sister ran in. When the men walked into the restaurant, Michi said she told them she had a gun under the register. A lie.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And then all of a sudden, this guy comes from the in part of the restaurant and has a silver gun up in his hand, and he's telling them to get the hell out. Cussing at the guys.

[Julieta Martinelli]

After a life of abuse, Michi says she felt cared for.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I felt like if a guy took me to the movies, he was in love with me. If he wanted to take me to dinner, he's getting ready to pull out a ring and ask me to marry him. So if he saves my life, how you think I feel? He's a hero. I owe my life for him. There's nothing that this guy could ask me that I would say no to. So 10 days later, when he asked me to go on a robbery with him, I said, what am I supposed to do? He said, just be a lookout. I said, a lookout for what? And he said, for any man that comes or cops to come. But it didn't end up happening like that.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Miche says she had never done anything like that, but she figured all she had to do was stand outside a gas station. The man named Leroy would go inside and take the money from a safe in her head. At 19 years old, Michi says she just saw an opportunity to help this man, this hero who had helped her. She didn't think too much about it. She figured it would all be done in a matter of minutes. Instead, when they got there, he wanted

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

me to go inside with him, and he wanted me to search the man when he put that knife around his neck. And the man had a watch, a wallet, and a gun. And I felt it I don't know how many hundreds of times. Lifers will always think to themselves in their room, some quiet place, how that crime could have been done differently. I wished that I would have took that gun and shot my co defendant. That's what I wished.

[Julieta Martinelli]

What actually happened was far different from the fantasy that she would later envision in her cell.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

We went in, I searched him. I went to the safe, and the man had told us his name is Mr. Michael Kirigan. I don't want to call him the man because he's part of me. Mr. Kurgan said, There's a safe over there. It's already open. And I went over and there were these coins wrapped up in paper. That's all that was in the safe. And I took them all.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi says when she looked outside, she saw the victim's co worker who was arriving for his shift.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I screamed, and when I screamed, the gun went off. And I didn't see it, but I knew that he had killed our victim. And he ran to the door, and my feet are like, stuck, like semen in the ground. That man lost his life for $87.

[Narrator/Reporter]

No number.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

If I had said $87 million, that man lost his life for a billion dollars, it wouldn't be worth it. No money, no nothing would be worth taking somebody's life. I can tell you that even though I didn't kill him, I'm responsible for his death. And I can tell you what it feels like to be responsible for killing somebody.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi and the shooter went to trial separately. Both received life sentences. Michi says she never spoke to him again.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I hated him for using me knowing that I never knew anything about how to rob nobody. You didn't have to do that to me. Why you take me with you?

[Julieta Martinelli]

Her first few days in prison were a blur.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I wasn't even thinking about that I killed anybody because in my mind, I didn't shoot nobody, I didn't stab nobody. I'm not a killer, but I'm in jail for first degree murder.

[Julieta Martinelli]

She remembers being in a room in a group of women reading a newspaper. They kept looking at her and they

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

said, this is you. I was on the front page. I said, oh God.

[Julieta Martinelli]

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[Narrator/Reporter]

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[Julieta Martinelli]

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[Rosie Perez]

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[Michi (Marie Scott)]

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[Rosie Perez]

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[Narrator/Reporter]

We've been hearing from Michi about how a traumatic childhood ultimately led her down a road that ended in a prison cell. Now we're going to hear from her about what growing older and sicker in prison really feels like. Senior producer Julieta Martinelli continues the story here.

[Julieta Martinelli]

And that's how the years went by at SCI Muncie. Michie says that she was far from a model prisoner in the beginning. She ran away three times. On one occasion, she was caught. A couple of months later, I was eight weeks pregnant, she says she gave birth in shackles.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I had a little girl and that little girl is in her 40s now. I never got to raise her.

[Julieta Martinelli]

The baby's aunt on her father's side took custody.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I said, when she gets old enough to call you anything, let her call you mom. Because my mother died when I was three. And when I asked my aunt about five years old, could I call her mommy, she said no. And that hurt me. And I never wanted my daughter to feel like I felt when I was denied calling somebody mom.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Eventually, Michie was able to attend therapy in prison. She says that she spoke out loud for the first time with with other women about the abuse she had endured, about the shame that she carried so deep inside of her, about the terrible thing that she was a part of, just so she could feel valued by a man she didn't even know.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Loathed myself for what I did. I am a person of embarrassment. I am a person of regret. I am a person of negligence. I am a person of bad. But I am also a person of good. Today, I am a person of good. You know, my life is worth something now. It wasn't before, but it's worth something now.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi says she has now been sober for over 30 years. In prison, she says she made it her mission to help other women do the same. Mitchie's story is rife with trauma, but as she tells us, it's not so different from the experiences of many of the women she met in prison. A recent study by the Council of Criminal justice estimates that about 70% of incarcerated women report being victims of abuse or sexual assault in their childhood. Women in prison also consistently report higher rates of mental health issues and addiction. All of these factors raise the likelihood that these women will have more severe health issues, especially as they get older. People who study access to healthcare in prison say that institutions are not prepared to address complex healthcare needs like these. Michi says her experience with the healthcare system was basically non existent.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

You mean the care that health give you or your own health that you care for? Because there is no health care, you know, the people come to play doctor on us.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michie says that as she got older, she began to lose friends one by one. Some to cancer and others to various other illnesses. It was from these women that she learned to take meticulous care of herself and to note any changes in her body.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

This one day I get in the shower and I feel it's not. And I said, oh shit, that had to come overnight. Let me jump on this shit now. What is inside of me?

[Julieta Martinelli]

Mitchie says she put in a request for a visit in the prison infirmary. She saved up for money for the $5 copay. Yes, incarcerated people also have a copay.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Paid my $5. I said, look, a knot just popped up on me overnight. I need a check for cancer. So it took them like a month to put me on the list for ultrasound. They said it was fine, that I was on a stage two.

[Julieta Martinelli]

But Michie didn't trust the results. She wanted to attack cancer as hard as possible. She wanted to live. So she insisted on another opinion. She wanted to see a doctor at a hospital.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

They finally came back a month later and took me out to see the oncologist. He did his own. And a half an hour later he came back and he said, Ms. Scott. And he sat down and said, yeah. He said, I'm sorry to tell you you have breast cancer.

[Julieta Martinelli]

She began chemotherapy. Because Michi was not terminal, she couldn't apply for compassionate release. But Michi could could apply for something called commutation. That's a process that could potentially reduce her life sentence and allow her to be released from prison. Miche had tried once to apply but had been denied. She decided to try again with the support of the Abolitionist Law center, who also represented Frank Ross. Michi says that many people wrote letters of support, including some within the prison administration. Supporters on the outside made calls and wrote letters to the governor and the board of parole asking for her release. By then, Leroy Saxton, the actual shooter, was already free. He was re sentenced and released from prison years prior when laws governing juvenile life sentences were amended. And yet Miche, who received a life sentence for murder despite not killing anyone herself, was still in prison. Supporters asked the state to consider the 50 years she spent inside her rehabilitation and her illness.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And I used the rest of that time in Muncie fighting breast cancer to the point where I said, just take the other one too. I don't want either one of them because I don't ever want to go through what I went through trying to get rid of breast cancer.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Eventually she had a double mastectomy.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

So now I don't have any breasts, but I don't want cancer coming up in me through no breasts, you know, so if it comes again, it's going to have to come back somewhere else.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi says undergoing chemotherapy and a double mastectomy was difficult and painful. She made a point of speaking to the younger women and passing on the wisdom that she had received.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

And I tell the women, I said, you gotta speak up for yourself. Tell em you want more than a mammogram. You want it 3D because your breasts are dense. Don't let them tell you that you can't have it. And if they do tell you that, let me know.

[Julieta Martinelli]

While we're recording our interview, Michi receives a call from prison.

[Terry]

This call is subject to recording and monitoring.

[Julieta Martinelli]

It's her friend Terry calling to check up on her. Michi and Terry were cellmates like 30 years ago, but they're still really close friends.

[Terry]

She has been such a great friend to me, and it has been a blessing to have her in my corner and to be hers.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi asked Terri if she would be willing to talk to us and tell us about her own struggles with prison healthcare.

[Terry]

I've had seven surgeries in 15 years. Oh, wow. So between my carpal tunnel, my hysterectomy, my foot surgery, my two back surgeries, it's been rough.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Terry says it's difficult to get a diagnosis, let alone treatment.

[Terry]

But fortunately for me, I have a very strong support system and family. So when something is wrong, I can voice it. They will do research for me, and then I go into the doctor's clinic or the sick call and say, okay, now this is what I know what you gonna do. So I think that has made my way easier. But watching other people around me get sick and not have that has really been a challenge. The healthcare system that they bought into sucks.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Terry is referring to Pennsylvania's private prison healthcare system. All across the country, private companies will bid for contracts with prisons. Elected officials and the Department of Correction often tell taxpayers that this is a good thing, that it's cheaper for the state, and that they're passing the responsibility of health care to professionals. It sounds good on paper. The problem is private companies are incentivized to reduce spending and maximize profit, and there's little oversight across the country. And over the years, there have been thousands of reports of neglect, failure to provide adequate care, working with doctors who've lost their medical licenses, among other issues. Terry says even the most basic of medical needs can become a months or even years long process that requires putting up a fight.

[Terry]

A prime example, I had issues with my foot. It took me five years to get permission just to even pay for my own shoes. Because what they were selling on commissary wasn't what the foot specialist and physical therapist said that I should have. And that now every shoe that I get has to be under 100. As far as its value. None of those shoes are less than

[Julieta Martinelli]

160 bucks shoes a doctor had prescribed, shoes that she was willing to pay for. And still Terry says that it took years for the prison to approve the request.

[Terry]

Everything is so cookie cutter, in and out, quick, quick, quick. They don't listen. And them not listening has been to the detriment of hundreds of people. I have to get off the phone because it's on my phone down here.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi tells me that she doesn't have that many friends Left around her age, many have died inside. She's one of the survivors and one of the only ones to be granted her freedom. That came about on January 7th of this year when her commutation was approved and she was released from prison into a halfway house in Philadelphia. All she had with her was a bag and a five day supply of her medication.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I'm supposed to be on medicine for the rest of my life. A pill in the morning and a pill at night to keep it from coming back somewhere else in me. So who's to say it's not gonna pop up somewhere else?

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi tells me she hasn't taken her medication in over two weeks. Now that she's free, it's her responsibility to sign up for Medicare or to find health insurance and seek out a medical provider. You name it.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

I guess that's incumbent upon me, who has never even filled out an application before. In jail, they do all that shit for you. I don't know how to take care of medical needs. I'm learning. Just like I'm learning the phone. I'm learning how to find ways to take care of myself through the phone. So I'm trying to get Social Security, I'm trying to get Medicare. I wrote all these different people.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi says she's now in the process of getting the support she needs. But as hard as it is to start over while recovering from cancer, she says at least now she's free.

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Right now it doesn't even feel like I have feet because everything I do is float. You know, it's on a float. And things that I see that people take for granted is huge to me.

[Julieta Martinelli]

What kind of stuff?

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Like puppies walking down the street with their leashes. I am like a baboon in a car when I see a puppy. Everything is animated. That's the best way I can explain coming out into freedom after being so long. I had a friend of mine from an organization that was doing paintings or pictures of what we thought freedom would be like before we had even had a chance to get it. So I told them freedom to me would be like me standing on Mars and looking down at Earth. And I'm seeing. I'm getting ready to get a ship to be transported to Earth. But in the meantime, you see all these thoughts coming out of my head, like, what is a microwave? I never. What is a iPhone? I've never had these things in my hand. So all of these things that people take for granted are huge deferred dreams. To me, life was a deferred dream until I woke up outside, you know.

[Julieta Martinelli]

So did it look like you thought that it would when you were imagining being on Mars?

[Michi (Marie Scott)]

Yeah. No. No, it was better. It was.

[Julieta Martinelli]

Michi has now been free for more than five months. She's building a relationship with her daughter and grandson and is looking forward to moving away from the halfway house into her own place. Eventually, she's finally back on her medication and learning how to navigate the healthcare system system on the outside. She's also been more open to sharing her story and experiences with cancer inside and supporting an effort to reform the system. Lawyers and advocates in Pennsylvania are asking the state to take into account the aging population and they're supporting a bill that would expand access to medical transfers or compassionate release so someone like, like Michi could seek out better quality health care on the outside before being considered terminally ill. We'll delve into those reform efforts on the next episode of Release to Die. And we go back to Frank Ross and an unexpected hurdle he's now facing.

[Terry]

The doc already put a petition to revoke his compassionate release. They took it to the courts and now we got to go to court.

[Julieta Martinelli]

That's next time on the final chapter of Released to Die. Release to Die is a production of Latino USA Futuro Studios and Futuro Investigates. This episode was produced by me, Julieta Martinelli and edited by Marlon Bishop. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebeau, scoring and sound design by Jacob Rosari. Fact checking for this episode by Roxana Aguirre, Victoria Estrada, Jessica Ellis and Nasi Trujillo are our production managers. Marie Nojosa, Penile Ramirez, Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia, our executive producers. Release to Die was made possible by Public Welfare foundation catalyzing transformative approaches to justice that are community led, restorative and racially just.

[Terry]

Foreign.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Powers.

[Julieta Martinelli]

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