6,000 drug offenders to be released from prison Friday

[Jabberwocky]

About 6,000 drug offenders will be released from federal custody over the next few days, but some legal experts warn that the government has done too little to help many of them successfully reintegrate into society.

The prisoners will be released from federal Bureau of Prisons custody on Friday and Monday as a result of a U.S. Sentencing Commission decision last year to cut sentences of drug offenders by an average of two years.

The vast majority have spent only a short time in a halfway house -- not the six months to a year normally required for drug offenses -- before being transferred to the much looser restrictions of home confinement.

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Of the prisoners being released, 1,764 are not U.S. citizens. They will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and most of them will be deported.

Nearly 80% of the rest -- or about 3,400 -- already have moved to the Bureau of Prisons' halfway houses or were confined at home, but will be released from custody by Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.

The remaining 850 or so will be released directly from prison to a probation officer.

Prisoners being released include 250 from California, 310 from Florida, 260 from Illinois, 95 from Maryland, 100 from Pennsylvania, 163 from Virginia and 35 from Connecticut.

The decision not to require the prisoners to spend lengthy transition periods in halfway houses "is a major concern," said Malcolm C. Young, a Washington lawyer who works as a consultant on criminal justice issues.

“We have known for years that reintegrating people back into society is a challenge, and the results have not been very good,” he said.

The problem is overcrowding. About 6,000 federal prisoners are normally released under supervision each month, and many already fill the system’s 209 halfway houses.

“Halfway houses are pretty close to capacity,” said Young, who has been studying the issue but said he has been unable to get details from federal officials.

According to a study of halfway houses in Ohio between 2002 and 2007, 36% of prisoners who were released after leaving a halfway house were rearrested, compared with 49% of prisoners who were released without any formal transition.

Edmund Ross, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, said that under normal circumstances, most prisoners are sent to halfway houses before transitioning to home confinement. If an inmate has a stable family situation, the halfway house stay can be as little as a day, he said.

“We’ve been able to utilize the halfway houses optimally,” he said, by moving people quickly into home confinement.

That won't happen to most of the prisoners being released in the coming days, however.

A senior Justice Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Bureau of Prisons has prepared for the mass release for more than a year and has scheduled other releases to put “as many as possible” into halfway houses before this weekend.

The Sentencing Commission, an independent agency of the judiciary, voted last year to cut drug sentences by an average of two years. It followed up with a vote to make the reductions retroactive.

Up to 46,000 prisoners could be affected by the sentencing reductions, according to the commission. They include some inmates who used violence while committing a drug crime.

An additional 8,500 prisoners will be eligible for release this year under the sentence reductions, according to the commission.

Before a prisoner is released, a federal judge must make a determination that he or she is not a threat to public safety.

About 25% who applied for early release under the program have been rejected, according to the Sentencing Commission.


Source: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-prison-release-20151029-story.html

 

[Eveleivibe]

Why are the non US cits being deported? Were they there illegalily before commiting their crimes?

Evey

 

[YellowLights]

Why are the non US cits being deported? Were they there illegalily before commiting their crimes?

Evey

Any more information on this?

 

[herbavore]

No, many of the people being deported were/are legal US residents. Here is an article profiling a few of them:https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/06/...amilies-torn-apart-deportations-drug-offenses. This has been going on long before this latest mass release of drug offenders. Obviously if you are undocumented the deportation will be even easier.

Continuing failure of the drug war mentality.....ruining countless lives, creating more misery, spending billions with nothing to show for it but more crime and more criminals and of course, more drugs.

As far as the original article goes, I love the first sentence, "About 6,000 drug offenders will be released from federal custody over the next few days, but some legal experts warn that the government has done too little to help many of them successfully reintegrate into society." The government has 'done too little"????? Try nothing at all. No, that does not go far enough. How about , "The government has virtually assured through their practices and policies in prison, their practices and policies upon release from prison, that those newly freed prisoners will have exactly zero support whatsoever to deal with addiction or poverty or lack of social structure or mental health services."

 

[manboychef]

As herby stated, even if you have done your time, you are still paying a huge price socially and economically.

Once you leave prison, it is extremely hard to find a job that pays well enough to afford to live. Also, you leave jail with practically no cash on hand in order to pay a first months, last months, and security deposit to ensure a place to live. Basically, we are sending these prisoners out in the world with the label felon, no real place to live unless family is kind enough to help, and no real prospects of making money legitimately. Not to mention that our for profit prison systems have cut most drug rehabilitation programs other than NA and AA (because they are free).

Many inmates earn GEDs and go on to study college level classes, however with the Felon title it is incredibly hard to work in your desired field. It is either construction, or restaurant work which both are proven to keep you working forty hours and still at poverty level (no benefits, paid time off, or upward mobility). Yes you can get federally bonded, but the law is written that you must already have landed a job which is the hard part for felons.

Basically in a nutshell, if you have been to prison, you will be doing time for the rest of your life. I am not sure, but I believe it also takes away your right to vote, so even if you do get out you have no hope of changing the laws in your favor by being active in politics.

 

[jammin83]

Most states you can vote after you've served your sentence manboy. I think Virginia is the only state that you can't vote for life.

This is a step in the right direction, but not any type of real solution.

From a study they did on recidivism rates:

The study, released Tuesday, tracked 404,638 state prisoners from 30 states who were released in 2005. It found that 67.8 percent of them were re-arrested within three years of their release and 76.6 percent were re-arrested within five years. Of the latter group, more than a third were re-arrested in the first six months after leaving prison, and more than half were arrested by the end of the first year, showing that the rate of recidivism was highest during the first year and declined every year after that.