U.S. Federal Prisons Released Fewest Inmates in 11 Years

(Bloomberg) -- They did their time.

In fiscal 2017, U.S. federal prisons released about 41,000 inmates, the lowest since 2006, and the system housed about 185,000 inmates, the lowest since 2004.

Federal inmates convicted for violent offenses -- such as robbery and homicide -- were released at a rate of about 30 per day in September 2017, the final month of the fiscal year, according to Bureau of Prisons data. People convicted for drug offenses, 45 per day; sex crimes, about seven per day.

The federal data don’t include state and local correctional systems.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Tanzi in Washington at atanzi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kristy Scheuble at kmckeaney@bloomberg.net, Vincent Del Giudice

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