Federal prison release includes more than 200 NC cases

Federal prisons will open the doors early for nearly 6,000 drug-law offenders on Friday as part of a sweeping sentencing reform program.

In the initial wave of inmates to be freed in the early-release program, 227 were convicted in North Carolina.

About 80 of those inmates were sentenced in the Eastern District of North Carolina, which stretches from Raleigh east to the shore.

The inmates set to go free are among the first of tens of thousands nationwide eligible for early release.

The reduction in prison time for the inmates deemed to be nonviolent drug offenders is the result of changes adopted last year by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Each case goes back to the original sentencing judge and some cases for early release have been granted and others rejected.

“While the timeline for release will be earlier now for many inmates, the implementation of this amendment will not constitute an ‘opening of the floodgates’ so to speak,” Thomas Walker, the U.S. attorney at the helm of the Eastern District, said in a statement. “Officials on all sides of this issue are working diligently to ensure the safety of our communities and a smooth transition back into society” for the prisoners who are freed.

Prison spending makes up one-third of the U.S. Justice Department budget, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have agreed lately that cost reductions are needed.

Drug offenders make up half the federal prison population, and many more are in state prisons.

Prison reform advocates have long criticized sentencing disparities borne out of the 1980s War on Drug laws that targeted crack cocaine.

In April 2014, as part of an effort to relieve some of the prison overcrowding and ease some of the harsh penalties given to nonviolent drug dealers in the 1980s and ’90s, the federal sentencing commission created modest reductions to prison sentences.

Case by case

As prison reformers talk about the need for more changes, such as reducing mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes, court officials spent much of this past year sorting through old cases. With the new guidelines, federal prosecutors, public defenders and probation officers worked to identify inmates in their districts who could be considered for early release.

Leslie Cooley, deputy chief of the narcotics and organized crime section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District, said this week that her office has reviewed about 1,124 cases since the Sentencing Commission amendment and knows of at least 600 more that need to be considered.

Her office looks at the history of each inmate eligible for early release. Release for some will be contested because of a violent history or prison infractions that raise concerns.

The prosecutor’s office has objected to early release of prisoners caught with narcotics or other contraband such as cellphones, which have been used from the inside recently to orchestrate and organize crimes on the outside.

Adjusting from jail

Court officials in the Eastern District have developed a four-pronged approach designed to help the inmates and the communities where they settle.

That approach includes:

▪  Court programs, where the freed offenders check in routinely with probation and parole officers, public defenders, prosecutors and a judge.

▪  A program at Butner Federal Correctional Insitution in which inmates about to be released are given tough talks about the risks of getting another felony and advised about firearm restrictions, and about job programs that can help them explain their criminal pasts.

▪  Re-entry councils geared toward helping newly freed inmates navigate some of the hurdles and obstacles of day-to-day life after incarceration.

▪  Focused deterrence call-in programs, where inmates are just a phone call away from asking for help.

There are programs such as the Community Success Initiative that Dennis Gaddy, a former inmate, started 11 years ago to help inmates and others learn personal development and leadership skills that can help them overcome problems from their past.

Some rejected

Judges have discretion to deny release, and of the 572 orders issued in the Eastern District of North Carolina, 110 prisoners have been rejected.

Though some police organizations across the country have expressed concern about the early-release program, prison reform advocates offer numbers to try to give larger perspective.

More than 2.3 million people are behind bars this country. More than 10,000 of them are released from state and federal prisons every week, and more than 650,000 every year. The U.S. Sentencing Commission estimates that inmates approved for the early-release program will get an average of more than two years cut off their sentences, making the average sentence nine years long.

“These people have been in prison a long time,” Walker said.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Federal prison release includes more than 200 NC cases."