A bus ticket to another city. No money. No phone.
That’s what the Alabama Department of Corrections gave people dropped off at bus stations Tuesday as hundreds of state inmates were set to be released early from prison following a 2021 state law.
Two men got off a state van about 10:05 a.m. at the Birmingham Intermodal Transmit Facility in front of the Greyhound bus station.
They each had a bag containing what appeared to be clothes.
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Standing outside the station, the two men spoke to AL.com.
Shane Rutledge was arrested in March 2020 on drug charges.
Rutledge served time in the Walker County Jail, then at an ATF facility before being transferred to the ADOC Childersburg Work Release facility.
He served there for about a year before being released today.
Another man, who only provided his first name as Brandon, had a similar story.
He was arrested in the summer of 2020 on drug possession charges in Walker County.
He also spent time at the county jail, ATF, and then was transferred to Childersburg. He had been there for about a month before being released today.
Alabama prisons let out some inmates early on Tuesday, Jan. 31, following a 2021 law. (Ivana Hrynkiw | ihrynkiw@al.com)
Both men’s sentences were set to end in September.
They said 13 men there were set to be released from the work camp today, and everyone was notified about their early release several weeks ago.
But after Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s lawsuit Monday, alleging the ADOC did not properly contact victims of the inmates’ release, Rutledge said the facility was forced to only let out four of the original group.
A Montgomery County judge denied Marshall’s request to halt the release on Monday evening.
A letter from ADOC Commissioner John Hamm to Marshall was referenced in that court hearing, where Hamm said, “no inmate will be released without compliance with the (state’s) victim-notice requirement.”
Law enforcement officials around the state have expressed concern about the release.
“Anything that floods the state with dangerous offenders is something that causes me great concern,” said St. Clair County Sheriff Billy Murray.
“We currently have a man being released to our county that has repeatedly been denied parole. He killed his brother,” Blount District Attorney Pamela Casey said Monday. “He had dug a hole to put his wife’s body in when he was arrested. At no time was my office or his ex-wife notified of his early release.”
Cullman Sheriff Matt Gentry call the early release “an injustice to society, and especially an injustice to the victims and their families.”
There were set to be 369 inmates released early Tuesday.
As of time of publication, no state official had responded to requests for comment as to how many would actually be released.
Of the four men released at Childersburg, two were picked up from the facility.
Rutledge and Brandon were dropped off by the prison van outside the Greyhound station, each given a bus ticket to a destination they didn’t choose.
Neither were given money for food, nor had access to a phone to call family members or friends.
Rutledge is headed to a halfway house, and has a job lined up.
Brandon said he doesn’t know what’s next for him, but plans to go home to Walker County.
When asked why Marshall would be upset about their release several months early, they both shook their heads.
Wouldn’t the public rather have the men released and supervised via an ankle monitor for several months, instead of being released without any supervision?
“That’s what I’m saying,” Brandon sighed.
“I guess I could understand it more if it was a violent crime,” Rutledge said. “But I don’t know why they would be upset for us to get out and get a head start.”
AL.com reporter Carol Robinson contributed to this report.