sentencing guidelines from federal crack cocaine reductions a five-year study by the u.s. sentencing condition and served their entire sentence before the new guidelines were in place. the study found that both groups reoffended at similar rates. who benefits from a sentence reduction? the prisoner? or the bureau of prisons? judge jack weinstein is a sitting federal judge who has had to make sentence reduction decisions. top priority, he says, is safety of the community. you have to ask yourself, if i release this person now or shorten the sentence, will he be in grave danger to the community? and the statics say very clearly no. reporter: 25% coming out are noncitizens. in a statement to cnn, u.s.
guidelines from federal crack cocaine resulted in reducing sentences for 16,000 federal drug offenders. a five-year study compared those released early to inmates who served their entire sentence. the study found both groups reoffended at similar rates. who benefits from a sentence reduction? the prisoner or the bureau of prisons? judge jack wine stein is a judge in new york who had to make sentence reduction decisions. top priority, he says, is safety of the community. the first question the judge asks himself is, if i release this person now or shorten the sentence, will he be a greater danger to the community? the statistics say, very clearly, no. reporter: 25% of those coming
sentence before the new guidelines were in place. the study found that both groups reoffended at similar rates, so who benefits from a sentence reduction? the prisoner or the bureau of prisons? judge jack weinstein is a sitting federal judge in new york who has had to make sentence reduction decisions. a top priority, he says, is safety of the community. and the first question the judge asks himself is if i release this person now or shorten the sentence, will he be a greater danger to the community? and the statistics say very clearly, no. 25% of those coming out are non-citizens. in a statement to cnn, u.s. immigration and customs enforcement tells us, it will take 1,700 of those released into custody by next week. and they will likely be deported. jean casarez, cnn, new york.
on his murder conviction, body accepted a plea bargain with a sentence reduction that could free him in the very near future, but now there s a snag going through some difficulty with d.o.c. not complying with the court s order. they re refusing to grant my earned time. i don t want all of this drama to go along with it. i just wanted to get my earned time and get on. i mean, that s the system. but the decision is not up to prison officials. it s up to the attorney general s office, which is where body s new plea bargain was negotiated. depending on the attorney general s final decision, body could become eligible for parole immediately or not for another two years. i m prematurely going to prerelease class. the prison has put him into a program for inmates about to re-enter society. finding a job, reuniting with family, communicating with your community parole officer, juggling appointments,
sinned journey with me let s take a walk pain got me feeling like you really ain t listening between them, kenneth body and billy hankins have endured more than 40 years in prison. come down here about three times a week, you know, to stay fit and to release stress. it helps you work off pent-up negative energy that you accumulate during the day dealing with [ bleep ]. only the strong survive, i m sure you ve heard that before. it s especially true in this environment. you never know when it s going to pay to be the stronger man. with no chance for parole, hankins survival in prison is a lifelong commitment, but his friend is planning a life on the outside. due to new evidence coming forth on his murder conviction, body accepted a plea bargain with a sentence reduction that could free him in the very near future, but now there s a snag going through some difficulty with d.o.c. not complying with