Nearly 3,100 federal inmates will walk out of prison on Friday as a provision of the sweeping criminal justice reform act passed by Congress takes effect.
The mass release – the largest since the First Step Act was signed into law after a rare bipartisan push last year – applies mostly to drug offenders and inmates serving sentences for weapons charges. It was initiated by a recalculation of the number of days inmates accrue each year for good behavior that was applied retroactively under the new law.
Note: The act was signed into law by President Donald Trump in December of 2019.