Early Release of Prisoners Possible

Nearly 13,000 prisoners serving time in Florida prisons may be eligible for early release following rulings made by the Florida Supreme Court. With much of Tallahassee, the capital, closed for the holidays, the state’s highest court issued rulings in a pair of cases that affect inmates whose sentences were reduced in the 1980s to alleviate crowding in the prison system. Florida will appeal the rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court, a Florida Department of Corrections official said. As a result, the prisoners, many of whom would already have been released, will not go free any time soon, the official said.