A man was released after 27 years in prison for murder and within hours was declared missing in West Virginia.
His name is Kevin Flythe, now 52 years old, he was released with severe mental and physical disabilities. His lawyers claim that the Bureau of Prisons let him go without a plan.
What happened? Kevin Flythe was released from a prison in West Virginia on January 27, 2021, five months after suffering a stroke that left him nearly speechless and partially paralyzed.
- A judge reduced his sentence for a new early release amendment in the District, giving Flythe a second chance at age 52.
- He was released from a prison in West Virginia and was supposed to arrive hours later on a bus at DC’s Union Station. He never made it.
- A cousin from DC was waiting for him at Union Station to see him for the first time in 28 years and was the one who reported him missing.
- Kevin Flythe served two decades in prison for murder.
And now that? Flythe’s family and lawyers filed their complaints and mobilized a group of public defenders to conduct an exhaustive search that now spans cities.
- The Federal Bureau of Prisons was criticized for not putting in place a plan to get Flythe safely home.
- A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment to The Washington Post on Flythe’s case because, she said, they will not comment on pending litigation or matters subject to legal proceedings.”
Unfiltered. “I Kevin’s story saddens me, but I’m not surprised. This is the worst-case scenario for the norm,” said Keesha Middlemass, a Brookings Institution fellow and associate professor in the political science department at Howard University, who wrote a book on prisoner reentry management and policy.
- Middlemass noted that those who are released are given a bus or plane ticket and are left completely alone, without even a phone.
Main news source: The Washington Post.