Kansas man battling cancer dies 2 months after rare release from prison, ACLU says

A man who was freed from a Kansas prison two months ago in a rare medical release died Friday, according to the ACLU of Kansas. He was 48.

Christopher McIntyre had been battling terminal cancer when he was released April 12 from the Lansing Correctional Facility and into the care of relatives in Wichita. He had been serving time behind bars for aggravated burglary.

Sharon Brett, the ACLU of Kansas’ legal director, said she was grateful McIntyre was released so he “didn’t have to die alone in a cage.” He spent his last two months with family and friends. But she said there are other Kansas prisoners who are terminally ill.

“Chris was just one of them,” Brett said. “There are so many people who are very ill who meet the criteria ... who have been denied.”

McIntyre was among 108 ACLU of Kansas clients who requested executive clemency from Gov. Laura Kelly since the COVID-19 pandemic began. He was instead freed after the Kansas Department of Corrections granted his application for release due to “functional incapacitation,” which permits early release for incarcerated people who have medical or mental health conditions so grave that they do not pose a threat to the public.

That kind of release is rare. Over the past five years, the department of corrections has granted it to two other people, a spokesperson has said. One was in 2016; the other was last year.

The ACLU of Kansas has sought that type of release for other clients, but McIntyre has been the only freed through the process.

At the time, his family said they were grateful to corrections officials for “this measure of mercy.”

McIntyre had originally been scheduled to be released May 16, 2024. In his clemency application, he said he had lost 50 pounds in prison and suffered from “constant nausea and weakness of limbs.”

Prisoners can also be released if they are within 30 days of death. A bill that would have extended that period to 120 days did not pass this year. If it had, Brett said, McIntyre would have likely been released sooner.

“What do we get as a society from continuing to incarcerate people who are that sick, who are within weeks or months of death?” she asked. “What do we get by forcing people to die in prison when they’re not serving life sentences?”