The first wave is due around November. 1, and most of those getting early release are already in halfway houses or under home confinement. This action is long overdue and should be accompanied by robust efforts to ensure ex-offenders’ successful reintegration into society. The large size of this release is the result of delaying inmate releases to give the Justice Department time to prepare for the increased need for prisoner monitoring and reentry services.
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Most will likely be returning to southern states, with Texas expected to receive the largest number of released inmates. Voices calling for sentencing reform range from religious leaders to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to Republican political mega-donor Charles Koch.
President Obama’s upcoming release of nonviolent drug offenders seems very similar to the emptying of state mental hospitals during the 1970s, which many believe caused the current homelessness, drug and street crime problems. 30, 2015, there were almost 206,000 inmates in USA federal prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
US officials estimate that more prisoners sentenced in the federal judiciary’s Western District of Texas are set for early release than any other region in the country, the San Antonio Express-News reported, citing figures provided by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Sentencing Commission. Rather than build new prisons, it’s time to take a look at the way we are sentencing to make sure the people we send to prison actually belong there. “Most of the cases in the federal courts are major drug transactions”, says Wortham. Both fiscally prudent Republicans and social-reform Democrats are coming together to agree on changes that save money, end the injustice of long sentences and reclaim lives. Each has been appropriately punished and earned the opportunity for redemption. This bipartisan plan would move the nation toward a more sensible criminal justice system. The Justice Department is right to put teeth behind its yearslong campaign to provide a path to freedom for federal inmates who have paid their debts to society.
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Three decades of misguided tough-on-crime policies have created a mammoth USA prison system that holds more than 2 million people and costs an estimated $80 billion a year. The group of 32 inmates from Connecticut does not include an additional unknown number of criminal aliens arrested in the state who will also leave federal prisons – to be deported. Ex-offenders are ultimately responsible for their own fates, but they can not do it alone.
