Alabama State Law Requires Department of Corrections to Releases Nearly 400 Inmates on Tuesday

The sun sets behind Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala., on Jan., 27, 2022. AP Photo/Jay Reeves

The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles (ABPP) has confirmed to The Epoch Times that it will be processing up to 400 inmates discharged from the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) on Tuesday in accordance with state law.

AL.com reported that it obtained a notice that had been sent to law enforcement throughout the state but not for release to the media.

Inmates with charges ranging from marijuana possession to murder whose sentences were set to end within this year will be released under the supervision of the ABPP because of prison reform legislation.

Cam Ward, director of the ABPP, told AL.com, “The law was passed in 2021 and we will follow it as it is written. We did not advocate for it, but until we are told otherwise by a judge, we will enforce the law as written.”

As reported by AL.com, the notice to law enforcement was to make it aware that there would be groups of inmates waiting to board buses that would take them back to the counties where they were convicted.

“It is anticipated that the bus stations in Montgomery, Mobile and Birmingham areas will receive the largest number of inmates,” AL.com said the notice states. “Depending on bus schedules, released inmates may be waiting at the bus stations for some time.”

Ward told WBRC that 85 parole officers will be at different prisons on Tuesday equipped with an electronic monitoring device.

Ward also said that the level of surveillance will depend upon the risk assessment of each convict.

“Some people will have to be checked on a couple of times a week, some might be once a month depending on what the crime was, what the risk assessment is,” Ward told WBRC.

DOJ Prompts Criminal Justice Reform

In 2015, Alabama passed criminal justice reforms which included a mandatory supervised release program for inmates who are within a year of ending their sentence.

In 2021, Gov. Kay Ivey called a special session to discuss prison reform during which legislators passed a bill that retroactively applied the reforms to the entire prison population incarcerated before January 2016.

According to AL.com, Attorney General Steve Marshall, who opposed the 2021 legislation, filed a lawsuit against Ward and ADOC Commissioner John Hamm to prevent the early release until victims of the inmates’ crimes have been notified.

The move to pass the prison reform legislation could have stemmed from a Department of Justice lawsuit filed in December 2020 against the state of Alabama and the ADOC.

The complaint alleges that conditions in the Alabama prisons for men violate the U.S. Constitution because the prisons have failed to protect inmates from violence and sexual abuse.

In addition, the lawsuit alleges that the ADOC failed to provide sanitary conditions.

“The United States Constitution requires Alabama to make sure that its prisons are safe and humane,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division said in a press release on the lawsuit.

“The Department of Justice conducted a thorough investigation of Alabama’s prisons for men and determined that Alabama violated and is continuing to violate the Constitution because its prisons are riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence. The violations have led to homicides, rapes, and serious injuries. The Department of Justice looks forward to proving its case in an Alabama federal courtroom.”

The Epoch Times contacted the ABPP, the ADOC, and Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office for comment.