The government is freeing nearly 200 federal inmates from Georgia starting today as it seeks to curb prison overcrowding and shorten harsh sentences handed out to nonviolent drug offenders.
In all, the U.S. Justice Department is releasing 6,112 federal prisoners with felony drug convictions nationwide through Monday, the largest one-time release of inmates. Most are already in halfway houses or in home confinement. Of those being freed, 179 lived in Georgia before they were sent behind bars and have returned or will return to the Peach State.
Their prison sentences were shortened after the U.S. Sentencing Commission — an independent federal agency — voted unanimously last year to reduce sentencing guideline levels for drug trafficking offenders. The panel also made the changes retroactive, but it delayed making them go into effect for a year to give law enforcement authorities time to prepare.
The average sentence for those being freed this month is 10.5 years. Their reductions will bring their sentences down to an average of about 8.5 years. “Even with the Sentencing Commission’s reductions, drug offenders will have served substantial prison sentences,” the federal Bureau of Prisons said in a prepared statement released Friday.
Additionally, 1,789 of those being freed this month aren’t U.S. citizens and will be transferred to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of those, 763 have already been ordered deported. The rest remain in deportation proceedings. ICE couldn’t say how many lived in Georgia. But it confirmed 396 are from the federal agency’s Atlanta area of operations, which includes Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
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