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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Finding 400 Utah convicts worthy of early release may not be possible.
That's what the chairman of Utah's Board of pardons and Paroles said in response to a plan to balance the state budget by cutting money from prisons.
Michael Sibbett said releasing the inmates was the Department of Corrections' solution to having its budget cut by three-point-four million dollars during the December 18 special session held to plug Utah's 117 million dollars deficit.
Sibbett says it would be the largest early release of inmates he's ever seen -- and he says he's not sure he's got 400 "good" people who could safely be let out early.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
