Mass release of Alabama prisoners stalled by failure to notify victims

Alabama’s plan to let out hundreds of prisoners Tuesday was largely delayed after the state said it failed to notify victims ahead of the mass release.

A total of 412 prisoners who were in the final months of their sentences were going to be removed from prisons due to a state law passed in 2015 and amended in 2021, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. 

“You’ll never have another [release] this big,” said Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles Director Cam Ward before the court hearing Tuesday, according to the newspaper.

However, only 92 were set free — with ankle monitors attached for the remainder of their term —  because the state’s Attorney General’s Office noticed an issue with sending the victim notifications.

As of last Friday, the Alabama’s Department of Corrections had told fewer than 20 victims that their offender was going to be let out early.

The law was designed to ease overcrowding in the state’s prisons by releasing people who were in the final year of their sentence.

Outside of those serving life sentences and those convicted of child sex crimes, all prisoners were eligible for the monitored release, according to WTVM-TV, the ABC affiliate in Columbus, Georgia.

People who committed violent crimes against others make up 60% of those who fall within the scope of the law, including 29 murderers and 21 rapists, according to the Daily Mail.

“I just pray that an innocent person’s blood is not shed as a result of someone being released, that should be sitting in prison finishing their time but gets out and hurts or kills an innocent person,” Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said, according to WVTM-TV, the NBC affiliate in Birmingham. “That wouldn’t have happened had they not been released early.”

The attorney general, Department of Corrections and Bureau of Pardons and Paroles agreed to let prisoners out on a rolling basis as victim notifications are delivered, according to the Advertiser.