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Drug Felons on Early Release Have Different Transition Times
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Some ex-drug offenders getting out early under a federal release program are spending little or no time in transitional housing first.
The offenders are among thousands nationally and hundreds in Ohio set for release under a cost-cutting measure intended to reduce the nation’s prison population.
Phelps Jones, federal supervising probation officer for the southern half of Ohio, says the release of inmates without time in halfway houses presents extra challenges for those prisoners.
Jones says his agency has prepared for months and is ready to help these offenders once they’re out.
Convicted heroin dealer Dalemar Nicholson will walk out of a Columbus halfway house Friday after just two weeks.
He says more time would have been useful as he ends a decade behind bars.