Nearly 6,000 federal prisoners are slated to be released from prison early as a result of reduced sentencing guidelines for drug crimes.The release, scheduled October 30 through November 2, 2015, is believed to be one of the largest one-time release incidents in U.S. history.
The release is the result of thousands of deliberative case reviews following the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s decision last year to retroactively apply reduced sentencing guidelines for a number of drug crimes. In July of last year, the commission voted to retroactively apply a two-level sentencing reduction to many drug convicts, who then could petition judges to shorten their terms. More than 13,000 people received sentence reductions from judges - on average, prisoners shaved 23 months off their sentence.
Its a win-win…Not only will the prisoners convicted of non-violent drug offenses get a second chance, the federal government will save money. With the cost of imprisoning a federal inmate coming in at around 30K annually, the federal government will see a savings of nearly a billion dollars.
It is unclear what the demographic makeup of the first 6,000 soon-to-be-released prisoners will be, other than a third are foreign citizens who will be deported upon release. Overall, the sentencing reductions represent people of various races. 93 percent are male, 38.5 percent Hispanic, whites 24 percent, blacks 34 percent and foreign citizens comprise about 24 percent. Most of their crimes involved methamphetamine and powder cocaine and some crack cocaine. Less than 10 percent were linked to crimes involving heroine or marijuana.
Source: U.S. News and World Reports, “6,000 Drug Convicts About to Go Free”, by Steven Nelson, October 7, 2015.
