Justice to free 6,000 prisoners

The Justice Department is slated to release around 6,000 inmates from prison early in the largest one-time release of federal prisoners ever, The Washington Post reports. 

The Post notes that the release of inmates from federal prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2 is intended to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to convicted drug offenders sentenced within the past 30 years. 

{mosads}Most of those released by the Bureau of Prisons will go into halfway houses or be confined to their homes before seeing supervised release, according to the report. 

A Justice Department official said on average those released will have served 8.5 years instead of 10.5 years, shaving roughly two years off the average sentence.

“Even with the Sentencing Commission’s reductions, drug offenders will have served substantial prison sentences,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told the Post. 

“Moreover, these reductions are not automatic. Under the commission’s directive, federal judges are required to carefully consider public safety in deciding whether to reduce an inmate’s sentence,” Yates added.

A change in federal sentencing guidelines could result in 46,000 of the around 100,000 imprisoned drug offenders seeing early release, according to the Post, with those being released starting later this month being among the first in that group.