By Ivana Hrynkiw
al.com
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The number of inmates released early from Alabama prisons under a newly-enacted law has steadily increased since the first eligible inmates walked out of prison on Tuesday.
According to an Alabama Department of Corrections spokesperson, 134 inmates have been released as of Thursday evening. Approximately 170-200 additional inmates will be released Friday.
There were set to be 369 inmates released from prisons and work release centers across Alabama on Jan. 31, the day the state’s “mandatory supervision period on certain sentences” law was enacted. The law, passed in 2021, was designed to allow certain inmates to be released early while the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles monitored those people for a set period of time.
The law specifies time periods for electronic monitoring and other supervision, but the monitoring must end the day the person’s prison sentence ends.
Due to issues notifying the victims and their families- and assurances from ADOC Commissioner John Hamm that no one behind bars for a violent crime would be released without that notification- Tuesday’s planned mass release turned into a slow trickle of people leaving prison.
The department worked with the ABPP to outfit inmates with an ankle monitor and other monitoring assurances before they were released.
Many of the inmates on a list obtained by AL.com of those to be released were within months, sometimes weeks, of the end of their sentence.
The ADOC spokesperson added, “Some inmates that qualify to be released from ADOC have detainers/pending charges from other law enforcement agencies and they will be transferred to those agencies.”
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