The Alabama Department of Corrections released nearly 100 inmates Tuesday in compliance with a state sentencing law which puts the early-release inmates under the supervision of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles.

On Monday, Attorney General Steve Marshall announced a lawsuit against Bureau of Pardons and Paroles Director Cam Ward and ADOC Commissioner John Hamm to prevent the early mandatory release of more than 400 inmates.

The prisoners are set to be released this week as a result of sentencing law passed in 2021. Marshall’s lawsuit sough a temporary restraining order on the release because the ADOC did not properly notify the victims’ families. The order was denied by a judge.

Marshall discussed his issues Tuesday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”

“[T]his is a great experiment,” Marshall said. “We have never had as a state to supervise violent offenders outside of a correctional facility. It makes sense, right? Because folks that have committed murders, manslaughter, robbery first, rape first, they’ve gone to prison and they’ve stayed there.

“Here, this is going to allow for those who committed the most heinous offenses with sentences over 10 years or more to get out up to a year early. We have never had any experience with doing that before.”

The attorney general talked about his opposition to the law and his concerns.

“I had significant concerns about whether or not we could do this effectively,” he said. “One thing that’s out there in the literature is to do this idea of reentry …but you did it inside the wire. You do a robust program inside the prisons because, No. 1, you make sure those people aren’t out to commit crimes, but also it’s proven to be effective, and yet the Legislature chose to go in a different direction.”

Marshall said he would support the Legislature passing a bill to rescind this law.

“We’ve had discussions with them about kind of how this all plays together,” he said. “And to some extent, let’s make sure that we have eyes wide open when it comes to making criminal justice policy.

“And I’m not sure everybody had their eyes wide open when they passed this bill.”

Austen Shipley contributed to this story.

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee