A judiciary agency passed an amendment on Friday that will make more than 46,000 drug offenders eligible for early release from federal prison, unless Congress moves to block it, according to The Associated Press.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously on an amendment to the guidelines consulted by federal judges that will cut current sentencing terms by an average of 25 months for eligible offenders, the AP reported.
Congress has until Nov. 1 to block the amendment. If it does not, eligible drug offenders will have their sentences commuted by November 2015, according to the AP.
More than 46,000 inmates, including many who have already served a decade or longer in prison, would be eligible to seek early release under the commission's decision, the AP reported. A judge would review the case of each prisoner seeking to get out early to decide if the release would jeopardize public safety.
The releases would start in November 2015 and be phased in over a period of years, according to the AP. The commission, an independent panel that sets sentencing policy, estimates sentences would be cut by an average of 25 months.
"The magnitude of the change, both collectively and for individual offenders, is significant," said commission chairwoman Patti Saris, a federal judge in Massachusetts, the AP reported.
Advocates of the early-release plan say it would cut prison costs - nearly one-half of the federal prison population is locked up for drug crimes, and scale back some of the harsh sentences imposed during the country's war on drugs, according to the AP. Prisoner advocacy groups immediately trumpeted the change, calling it a matter of fundamental fairness.
The sentencing change comes amid a broader rethinking of criminal justice policy that the Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder, has embraced, the AP reported. "This is a milestone in the effort to make more efficient use of our law enforcement resources and to ease the burden on our overcrowded prison system," Holder said in a statement.
Congress has until November to voice opposition to the commission's plan, though advocates consider that unlikely, according to the AP.
