Report: Shift in Sentencing Guidelines Will Mean Freedom for 6,000 U.S. Inmates
In a move that will hopefully lead to further concrete steps to target America's mass incarceration problem, the U.S. Justice Department is getting ready to release some 6,000 inmates from federal prisons, according to The New York Times.
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allbund / Shutterstock
In a move that will hopefully lead to further concrete steps to target America’s mass incarceration problem, the U.S. Justice Department is getting ready to release some 6,000 inmates from federal prisons, according to The New York Times.
The paper posted a report Tuesday detailing the change, which the DOJ has yet to officially confirm:
The Justice Department is preparing to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prison as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and roll back the harsh penalties given to nonviolent drug dealers in the 1980s and ’90s, according to federal law enforcement officials.
The release is scheduled to occur from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, and will be one of the largest one-time discharges of inmates from federal prisons in American history, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing matters that had not been publicly announced by the Justice Department.
Halfway houses will be the next stop for some of those released, according to one of the Times’ sources.
–Posted by Kasia Anderson
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