About eighty Alabama inmates have been released with ankle monitors as a law takes effect. It requires inmates to spend the final few months of their prison sentence on supervised release. The law releases inmates to the supervision of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons between three and twelve months before their sentences end. The inmates would have been freed from prison anyway in the upcoming months when their sentences end, but would not have ankle monitors. The 2021 law was touted by proponents as a public safety measure designed to make sure inmates are monitored when they leave prison.
The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles says approximately four hundred inmates are eligible to be released under the law. The Alabama Department of Corrections said in a news release that there will be a rolling release of the remaining eligible inmates as required victim notifications are done. The 2021 law, which was approved with broad support, was touted by proponents as a public safety measure designed to make sure inmates are monitored when they leave prison, instead of walking out the door unsupervised when their sentence concludes.
But the measure has drawn criticism from the state attorney general and some district attorneys because it allows inmates, including people convicted of violent crimes such as murder and manslaughter, to leave prison several months early. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also argued that required victim notifications had not been done.
Alabama lawmakers first approved the supervised release requirement in 2015. The 2021 legislation made the requirement retroactive. Inmates convicted of sex crimes involving children are not eligible for early release.
State Attorney General Steve Marshall spoke against the legislation in 2021. This week, he filed a lawsuit against Corrections Commissioner John Hamm seeking a restraining order to block the release of the inmates until crime victims are notified.
