US panel weighs changes to program for aging, ailing inmates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa businessman Clarence Rice had been imprisoned for wire fraud for a matter of months when he was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. The prognosis was grim: He would have just a few more months to live.
His one hope for freedom was a federal program that permits the early release of certain aging and ailing prisoners. But a warden rejected his request on grounds that he had served only a fraction of his sentence. Rice died in January 2013 at the age of 64, less than two