A Republican state lawmaker wants to prevent any more state inmates from being released before the end of their sentences under a law passed in 2015, a law that came into the spotlight this week because 369 Alabama inmates were due for release on Tuesday.

The number released was scaled back to about 80 as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday because of a requirement to notify crime victims before release. And the inmates were fitted with ankle bracelets for electronic monitoring, part of a requirement that they remain under the supervision of a parole officer until the end of their sentences. But Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Mobile, said he still believes the early release is a bad idea.

Elliott on Tuesday prefiled a bill that would block further implementation of the early release law until 2030. The bill would be considered by the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee after the next session starts March 7.

“My goal with the legislation is really to give my colleagues an opportunity to press the pause button, delay the implementation of this and keep any folks from getting released early in the future,” Elliott said. “And really for them to just have an opportunity to reflect on the criminal justice impacts, the very serious public safety impacts of this legislation.”

The Alabama Legislature passed the early, supervised release law in 2015 as part of criminal justice reforms intended to address an overcrowded, understaffed prison system. The law originally applied only to inmates sentenced in 2015 or earlier. In 2021, the Legislature expanded the law to cover those sentenced since 2015. The effective date of that expansion was Jan. 31, 2023, which is why so many inmates were scheduled for release on a single day.

Elliott said the seven-year delay is the only change his bill would make in the law.

“All it does is it takes the effective date of the act that allows for the early release of inmates as they near the end of sentence, it changes the effective date of the act until 2030,” Elliott said. “Again, the goal is to give my colleagues an opportunity to digest everything that they’re seeing right now with these criminals being released prior to the end of sentence, for them to really assess what the recidivism rate looks like and determine whether this was really in the interest of public safety or not. And of course, I think my colleagues will see that this was probably not the best idea.”

A criminal justice study group appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey issued a report in December 2020 recommending changes to address the crisis in Alabama’s prison system, which faces a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that conditions violate the constitution. Many of the study group’s recommendations were aimed at reducing recidivism. Those included a recommendation to expand the 2015 early release law. Ivey included the bill in her call for a special session on prisons in 2021, and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill by a wide margin, although Elliott was one of those who voted against it.

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The law says that inmates are to be released under supervision for periods ranging from three months up to a year before the end of their sentence depending on the length of their sentence. The release comes with the requirement of electronic monitoring and supervision terms set by the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. The idea is that inmates who leave prison will have a better chance to avoid committing more crimes and going back to prison if they are under supervision for a period and are subject to requirements like drug tests and other monitoring.

“I don’t buy that at all,” Elliott said. “It’s one of the reasons I voted against the bill when it came up in 2021. We’ve got opportunities for people to get out of prison early all over the place. For educational credit. For good time. Adding early release on top of early release on top of early release does nothing but harm public safety. If we operate under the premise that one of the reasons we put people in jail is to keep bad people away from the public, which I think we can all agree is at least a portion of why we put people in jail, then letting them out early undermines that very goal.”

Elliott said there has been discussion about seeking a flat-out repeal of the 2015 law. But he believes the pause until 2030 is the better approach to colleagues who supported the bill in 2021, to allow a chance to see if there is evidence the early supervised release can reduce recidivism.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of my colleagues looking at this wishing that they had voted differently,” Elliott said. “And I want to give them that opportunity.”