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The Alabama Department of Corrections says it released 80 inmates as part of a new mandatory supervision law that went into effect Tuesday.

It's significantly lower than the 412 inmates who were expected to be released.

Tuesday morning, a judge issued an order preventing ADOC from releasing an inmate without first notifying the victim's family or any interested party.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit Monday. He told Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é he was extremely concerned after learning ADOC had only been in contact with fewer than 20 victims Friday.

"I've sat with many victims in a parole hearing when they were objecting to that release, and just seeing how the thought of somebody being back on the streets had impacted them. We wanted to make sure that their voices were heard," Marshall said.

ADOC Commissioner John Hamm wrote Marshall a letter assuring him that no inmate will be released without first notifying the victims as required by state law.

Gov. Kay Ivey signed the mandatory supervision law back in October 2021. It allows inmates who are just months away from finishing their sentence to be released early under supervision. That means electronic monitors and check-ins with the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. ADOC can also require certain inmates to go to a rehabilitation facility, a mental health center or any other program it deems necessary.

Inmates will be monitored until their prison sentence was supposed to end.

If an inmate on mandatory supervision cuts their monitor, fails a drug test or doesn’t check in, they will go back to prison to serve the rest of their sentence. If they commit a crime while out, they would face even more time in prison, depending on that crime.

Marshall said he's always been against the idea, because it allows violent criminals like convicted murderers, rapists and robbers back on the streets.

"We’ve never had to do this in Alabama. This is not something that we have any experience doing, and that is supervising violent offenders," said Marshall. "The other thing that we see, even on the nonviolent side, is that a majority of these individuals have already been on supervision before, and they fail. The question, really, that I would ask those who are proponents is why do we expect them to do any differently here?"

However, many believe the law could actually benefit public safety.

"Under Gov. Ivey, public safety will always be at the forefront, and she will always be an advocate for victims and an upholder of justice. This is a pro-public safety, pro-common sense measure and implemented while respecting the rights of crime victims," Ivey's spokesperson, Gina Maiola, said.

The director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, Cam Ward, said his job is to just follow the law, but he understands what some proponents were thinking when they passed it.

"I think the way the law was passed was that they were thinking, 'They are going to be out in two to 10 months, regardless. They are coming out,'" Ward said. "What do you want? Do you want them to be supervised, or do you want them to have free reign and have no one oversee them? Because once they end a sentence, we no longer have any jurisdiction whatsoever. No one in the state of Alabama can oversee them, require them to check in or watch them. I totally get the fears ... but I think, at the end of the day, it’s the law."

The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles said they’ve been preparing ahead of the law going into effect.

They got an extra $4.5 million for electronic monitoring and even more money to hire more officers to supervise the extra inmates. Still, Ward doesn't expect the influx to be too much trouble for them.

"Some of these folks are only going to be under our supervision for a couple of weeks, even. So, over a period of, you know, a year, everybody who was released today or more, they won't be within us with us anymore," he said. "So, I don't think it's gonna be a big impact on our personnel, although we have prepared ourselves for a little bit of an increased workload and we're ready to do it."