Little local impact expected from federal prisoner release

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says thousands of federal inmates will be granted early release from prison, including more than 200 in North Carolina. The inmates will be released between October30 and November. 2, 2015, but they aren’t home free quite yet.

As President Obama said in the interview: “The system, every study has shown, is biased somewhere institutionally in such a way where an African American youth is more likely to be suspended from school than a white youth for engaging in the same disruptive behavior”. Others have served decades.

The Justice Department is right to put teeth behind its yearslong campaign to provide a path to freedom for federal inmates who have paid their debts to society. In response to the announced release of thousands of inmates from federal prison and with many more expected, it is important now for communities across the country to increase efforts to successfully reintegrate these individuals into society. Employers should give ex-convicts a chance by providing work that pays a living wage.

Meanwhile, some savvy prisoners like VICE contributor Robert Rosso-who is serving life at FCI Terre Haute in Indiana for meth trafficking-wonder why the official announcement of the release is really a big deal. Each has been appropriately punished and earned the opportunity for redemption. He added that his concern will cause him to be “thoughtful” about ongoing moves to reform the nation’s criminal justice system.

The shortening of drug offender sentences is part of a national trend to reverse the harsh federal drug sentences that began with the war on drugs in the 1980s. Federal officials say roughly 40,000 inmates could be eligible for reduced sentences in coming years. A week earlier, Democratic and Republican senators introduced a measure called the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which would further ease unnecessarily severe penalties that have raised prison costs while doing little for public safety.

“Cocaine is good example of (how the sentencing affects minorities), where someone in possession of rock cocaine may go to prison for 10 years, but someone in possession of powder cocaine might avoid a prison sentence altogether”, Orwig said. Florida will get 295 ex-offenders, the second-largest group headed to a single state.

Many stiff, drug-related mandatory sentences were passed during the 1980s and 90s. The 206,000 or so prisoners in state (not federal) facilities because of drug convictions have no such luck; the decision has no bearing on state sentencing guidelines.