US Justice Department to set free 6,000 US federal prisoners
The US Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 federal prisoners who received severe sentences over the past three decades.
According to US officials, the largest one-time release of about 6,000 federal prisoners will take effect between October 30 and November 2 in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who have received harsh sentences, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
About two-thirds of the inmates will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. About one-third are foreign citizens who will be quickly deported, officials said.
The measure by the US Sentencing Commission is separate from an effort by US President Barack Obama to grant clemency to certain non-violent drug offenders, resulting in the early release of 89 prisoners.
“The number of people who will be affected is quite exceptional,” said Mary Price, the general counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an advocacy group that supports sentencing reform.
The releases is attributed to a shift in the state's approach to criminal justice and drug sentencing that has been driven by a bipartisan consensus as mass imprisonment has failed.
Critics, including some federal prosecutors, judges, and police officials, have raised concerns that allowing so many inmates to be released at the same time could cause crime to increase.
According to Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, “Prison officials and probation officers are working hard to ensure that returning offenders are adequately supervised and monitored.”
About one-third of the Justice Department’s $27 billion budget is spent to defray federal prison costs. Although the US population has grown by about a third since 1980, the federal prison population has increased by about 800 percent and federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent over capacity, Justice officials said.
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