Georgia ranks sixth among states for the number of federal inmates who are being released this month amid efforts to stop prison overcrowding and shorten long sentences handed out to nonviolent drug offenders.
In all, the U.S. Justice Department is releasing 6,112 prisoners with felony drug convictions nationwide through Monday, the largest one-time discharge of inmates. Most are already in halfway houses or in home confinement. Many will remain under the supervision of law enforcement officers.
Of those being freed, 179 lived in Georgia before they were sent behind bars and have returned or will return to the Peach State. Only five other states are receiving more inmates than Georgia. The largest group — 597 — is heading to Texas, followed by Florida, 310; Illinois, 260; California, 250; and North Carolina, 227.
The inmates’ 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.
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