About 80 of those inmates were sentenced in the Eastern District of North Carolina, which stretches from Raleigh east to the shore.
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The inmates set to go free are among the first of tens of thousands nationwide eligible for early release.
This is part of the new sentencing guidelines put in place previous year, when the United States Commission on sentencing recommended changes for non-violent drug offenders who were given long sentences.
In each case, inmates applying for the early release must petition judges, who are required to consider public safety in deciding whether to grant early release.
Before a prisoner is released, a federal judge must make a determination that he or she is not a threat to public safety. The Bureau of Prisons budget is more than $6 billion, or about a quarter of the entire budget for the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Over the past two decades, the federal prison population has increased dramatically, and offenses carrying mandatory minimum sentences have played a significant role in that increase”, said Chief Judge Patti B. Saris, the chairwoman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Probation officers have worked with inmates coming out on housing, drug and alcohol counseling if needed and education and job needs. About 650 cases were reviewed by Federal Defender Service, according to Tom Phillip, associate federal defender in the district.
Her office looks at the history of each inmate eligible for early release.
The office supervises about 1,400 people and usually just a few prisoners are released into the district on any given day, Klug said, so 36 in one day is a challenge.
Court officials in the eastern district have developed a four-pronged approach created to help the inmates and the communities where they settle. Texas will receive the largest number of inmates affected by the policy change, 597, and Florida will receive the second largest number, 310, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
More than 2.3 million people are behind bars this country.
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Of those 6,112 federal inmates slated for release, 1,764 will be turned over to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where they will either be deported or face deportation proceedings.
