By GARRET ROBINSON
Staff Writer
Earlier in November, hundreds of inmates from an Oklahoma prison left before their sentence was over in one of the largest mass commutations in US history. A total of 527 inmates had their sentences commuted and 462 of the inmates were non-violent. The main reason for this is because of the reform efforts in Oklahoma to reduce overcrowded prisons and also helping the low-level inmates rebuild their lives. Before the inmates were released, Gov. Kevin Stitt told them, “Now is the first day of the rest of your life”. Also, other reforms in Oklahoma are making low-level felonies into misdemeanors so possession of a small number of drugs is a misdemeanor. The average age of the prisoners released was 40 years old and three-fourths were men, so releasing them early saved the State of Oklahoma about $12 million and helped the prisoners start back up their life.