Prisoner of pain.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Wrongful conviction of a paraplegic

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Richard Paey, a paraplegic with multiple sclerosis, served three years of a 25-year prison sentence before Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist, pardoned him. Paey requires high-dose opiate therapy to treat pain brought on by his M.S., a car accident, and botched back surgery. He was accused of forging prescriptions to acquire the medicine he needs--a charge he denies--and was convicted not just of the forgeries but of drug trafficking, even though prosecutors conceded there was no evidence he possessed painkillers for anything other than his own use.

His case drew notice from The New York Times, 60 Minutes, and hundreds of other news organizations. Times columnist John Tierney argued that Paey's case was "merely the most outrageous example" of a drug war policy that leaves "millions of patients" without "enough medicine for their pain."

Senior Editor Radley Balko spoke with Paey in November, six weeks after his release.

Q: How has life been since you were released?

1. Dreamlike. In prison you survive by developing a routine that becomes your life. I'm still in that routine. So it's sometimes still difficult to believe that I'm home.

Q: How were you treated by other inmates?

A: Very well. That was a surprise. People I never would have associated with--people I would have been afraid of on the street--treated me very well. I had more fear from some of the officers who worked in the prison system. I met one older man who had been a prisoner in America and in Cuba. He said in Cuban prisons they hit you in front of everyone; in American prisons they take you into a private room to beat you.

Q: Were you ever beaten?

A: It was mostly verbal and psychological abuse. But I was hit once. I was in the hospital after I had gotten ill in solitary confinement. I was sleeping when an officer came into the room and swung his radio down and hit me on my legs. He had seen my wheelchair and said he was just checking to see if l had any feeling in my legs.

Q: After you spoke with John Tierney of The New York Times, you were transferred to a maximum security prison across the...