OLYMPIA — Sean Trigg spends his days relying on assistance from others.

Getting out of bed, getting dressed, picking up a dropped book — all are impossible for the 41-year-old Leavenworth man to do on his own because multiple sclerosis has left him unable to walk or stand.

The main difference between Trigg and others suffering from the degenerative disease is that his days are spent in a dorm-like prison cell in the medical unit at Ahtanum View Correctional Complex in Yakima. Trigg is serving a 5-year sentence for dealing meth and carrying a firearm, and is due to be released in 2010.

Every three months he is driven across the mountains to the University of Washington in Seattle to receive chemotherapy; every six months he returns to receive new medication through a shunt in his stomach. But he no longer receives the regular physical therapy he had before his arrest, which quickly led to his need for a wheelchair once he was in prison.

"I just have to deal with it," he said. "I don't have much options."

Trigg is one of 44 prisoners in the state who could benefit from a proposal by Gov. Chris Gregoire to expand a program to release chronically or terminally ill prisoners, saving the state an estimated $1.5 million over the next two years. The offenders have to be considered low-risk to the community, so violent offenders, or sex offenders, would not likely be eligible.

All the estimated savings would be to the Department of Corrections in things like transporting prisoners like Trigg and prescription costs. It doesn't take into account any additional costs to the state from social services released prisoners might use.

The department works to see if prisoners qualify for private or veteran's health coverage, and barring other options they arrange for Medicaid, which is paid for partially by the state and partly with federal money.

"Overall, it's going to be less expensive to provide services to these people outside of the prison system than it would be inside the system," said Glenn Kuper, spokesman for the governor's Office of Financial Management.

Washington is among more than 30 states that have some form of early release program for seriously ill prisoners. Arizona is considering adding a similar measure to the books this year, and a handful of other states are considering tweaking their current laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Washington state is facing an estimated $6 billion deficit through 2011, and Gregoire's recent no-new-taxes budget proposal means all state agencies will need to make cuts.

At least 46 states are currently dealing with, or facing, deficits in their state budgets, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

"It's definitely one of the options states are looking at as one way to reduce their budget," said Alison Lawrence, a criminal justice policy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "With these medical paroles, it's one way states can get an especially costly prison population out of the prisons."

The bill is expected to be introduced next week, and if the proposal to expand the current program in Washington state is approved by the Legislature, only a small number would be eligible. An initial scan by the state Department of Corrections found just 44 out of 18,000 total inmates at the state's 15 prisons are eligible under the proposal, an increase from 19 who would be eligible under current law.

Many, including Trigg, are at Ahtanum View, which has a 21-bed medical unit with certified nursing assistants and registered nurses to help prisoners with special needs.

The current early release program, which has been in place since 1999, requires the prisoner be incapacitated before being approved for release. Fifty-three offenders have been released since 1999 under that program; last year, there were just two.

Ken Taylor, Director of Health Services at the state Department of Corrections, said having to wait for a patient to become incapacitated means the department continues to face substantial medical costs.

Taylor said by being allowed to release prisoners earlier, the greatest savings to the Department of Corrections would come from offsite medical services and expensive, ongoing drugs. Taylor said in one case, a prisoner's prescription costs are more than $100,000 a year.

The Department of Corrections currently spends about $27.5 million a year on hospital visits, both inpatient and outpatient services, and offsite specialists.

"We have a large and expanding group of folks who are going to be with us a very long time and the cost of their health care is going to rise significantly," Taylor said, noting that ailments range from quadriplegia to brain cancer. "The notion is that these folks are at a pretty low risk to reoffend."

Expanded medical parole is one part of a multi-prong proposal to cut costs at the state Department of Corrections. Other suggestions include shorter sentences for drug offenders and eliminating or shortening the time ex-convicts need to be under community supervision after they are released from prison.

Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will likely consider the bill, said that it seems like a commonsense approach.

"There's a balance to be created here between the right of the public to security, the right of the victim to be heard and the right of the general public again to not be burdened, as we are, with the medical expenses of all these guys who are no threat," he said.

Russell Hauge, the Kitsap County prosecuting attorney and chairman of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys said prosecutors have supported the general ideal in the past.

"We all understand how tight the budget is and this is a reasonable way to save money," Hauge said.

Trigg doesn't want to get his hopes up too high, but said he's ready to go home.

"My main focus will be getting back into rehabilitation and working on my ability to walk again," he said.

On the Web:

Washington Legislature: http://www.leg.wa.gov

Gov. Chris Gregoire: http://www.governor.wa.gov

Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys: http://www.waprosecutors.org

Washington State Department of Corrections: http://www.doc.wa.gov