Local sheriff's offices are doubtful that the early release of state inmates from prisons into mandatory supervision will bring any positive impacts at the county level.
Approximately 80 inmates were fitted with ankle monitors as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. There will be a rolling release of the remaining eligible, anticipated to be roughly 400 inmates, as required victim notifications are made by the ADOC.
"The implementation date was today but I think it will stagger out probably more over a few months as opposed to right away," said Cam Ward, Director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. The agency will oversee the inmates once they are released from prison.
The release stemmed from an amended law passed in 2021 to alleviate overcrowding in Alabama prisons. Those released are outfitted with an ankle monitor and are subject to mandatory check-ins and random drug testing until the end of their initial sentence.
State inmates aren't only in state prisons.
"Every county jail houses state inmates. If they violate their parole or probation, they'll go to a county jail and sit there for eight or nine months before the state comes to get them," said Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade. "Every county jail in Alabama has a problem with trying to get those people back into the state system."
Wade explained the only funding a county gets for state inmates is a reimbursement of $2.25 per day for the inmate's food.
"I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who could feed somebody for $2.25 a day," said Wade.
Other questions remain including if the early release of inmates from state prisons could help relieve the burden on county jails as space opens up at the state level.
"I don't think they'll take any more than they've been taking. They are doing this to lower the number of people in the state prison system. That's what this is all about. Taking people out of the state prison system so the federal government might not come down as hard on them in the lawsuit," said Wade. "Instead of actually working through that problem, they are just kicking the can and putting these people out on the streets back in local communities which will eventually end up back in county jails, and be a local burden to society and local taxpayer dollars."
12 inmates are anticipated to return to Calhoun County in the first round of releases, according to Wade. He said one person was in prison for robbery first-degree, which he said is a Class A felony.
"That's not a low-level offender," said Wade.
Repeat offending is a concern for both Wade and Chilton County Sheriff John Shearon.
"It's usually pretty quick that they return back to the jail, a month, two months—something like that a lot of them are back in there. Now, with the ankle monitor, that is going to be a new switch," said Shearon. "It doesn't help law enforcement. It doesn't help the citizens of Alabama. It just causes more grief on them."
"In 27 years of law enforcement, people re-offend. It's unfortunate. I hate that it happens. I hope that these people that they are letting out are successful members of society, but if you look at studies throughout the nation, most of these people probably re-offend," said Wade.
Shearon has doubts the required ankle monitor will help in some cases.
"Dealing with drug dealers, what does it matter? Drug dealers, you come to them to buy drugs and stuff like that anyway. It ain't going to matter about that. They can stay at home. It might help with burglary and thefts. I don't really know," said Shearon.
Ward said they have prepared for this release since 2021 when the amended law was passed.
"We're going to do our best to enforce the law as it is written," said Ward. "The law says we must do this and monitor this number of people. We knew this was coming a couple of years ago. We've been working this entire last year to make sure we had a monitoring program and supervisional program set up that clearly covers everybody. Whoever DOC decides, we are going to make sure we are doing our best to cooperate with them and monitor. The law is the law and until it's changed we are going to continue to follow what the law tells us to do."
Shearon said the mass release might help get state inmates from county jails to state prisons, but only to a certain degree.
"Unless you're a violent offender they don't want to send you to prison," said Shearon. "It's going to be drug cases, burglaries, thefts, those types of things that we need in prison. According to sentencing guidelines, you aren't going to be sentenced to prison on those type of terms. Those don't score high enough really unless they've got a bad criminal history to get to go to prison."
Omar Chinn was one of the people released from prison Tuesday.
"It's overcrowded. It's no bed space. People sleeping on the floors, and not bunks," said Chinn. "I understand why they are doing the mass release because that's no way to treat a human being, have them sleep on the floor."
He looked forward to reconnecting with family members. Chinn said he has three children.
"This experience, it's been tragic, but it's a well-learned lesson. Today it means a lot to me because a lot of people didn't get to come home today," said Chinn. "Some people have got to learn the hard way like I had to. I was told numerous times, 'Omar, don't do this. Omar, don't do that,' but, I did it anyway. So I had to learn."
Ward said the initial group of inmates being released should be the largest.
"Once this first number comes out, my guess on the data is going to be, it is going to get smaller and smaller the number of people you are dealing with. You have 22,000 people in prison, and I think this will be the largest group we ever have to deal with coming into supervisional parole. And they are short-term, so we won't deal with them for a long period of time because their sentences are soon to be done," explained Ward.
Inmates in the first group to be released to mandatory supervision have between two to 10 months left in their sentence. Convictions among the group range. People convicted of a sex offense involving a child are excluded as are offenders serving life sentences, according to ADOC.