Louisiana prisons released more than 1,900 inmates before they had completed their sentences Wednesday in the state’s first step toward reforming its record-high incarceration rate.
Louisiana has long had the highest incarceration rate in the country, and Wednesday’s early releases come after the state passed expansive reforms to its justice system this spring. Part of those reforms adjusted the state’s “good time” policy that made non-violent offenders eligible for early release so long as they had completed 40 percent of the sentences.
Now, inmates need to have served only 35 percent of their sentences to apply. As a result, facilities across the state are releasing on a single day twice the number of inmates they would typically release in a month, The Advocate reported.
Inmates released have been convicted of drug dealing, auto theft, fraud, and dozens of other non-violent crimes. Some have criticized the change of not accounting for the criminal histories of offenders. Louisiana Sheriff Steve Prator complained last month that one of the inmates being released had been arrested 52 times. (RELATED: Louisian Prison Uses Faith, Job Training To Gut Recidivism)
“I’m not saying we don’t need to reform what we do,” Prator said, according to the Louisiana news paper. “But certainly we need to take our time and do like some of the other states and have some programs to work on rehabilitation before we just open the gates and flood the streets with some of these people that don’t need to be out.”
Of the 1,927 inmates, 429 were already slated to be released in November and almost half would have been released before 2018. More than 100 inmates had sentences stretching well into 2019 and 2020. State Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc said the inmates are leaving two months ahead of schedule on average.
State legislators hope the new policies will cut the prison population by 10 percent over the next decade, saving the state at least $78 million, though some estimate the savings to reach as much as $250 million.
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