Program offering RI’s illegal immigrant convicts early deportation yet to produce results
By Eric Tucker, APSunday, January 17, 2010
No progress in RI immigrant prison release program
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal program allowing illegal immigrant inmates to get out of prison if they agree to be deported hasn’t resulted in a single person leaving jail early in Rhode Island.
The program was trumpeted by Gov. Don Carcieri (kuh-CHEHR’-ee) as a way to save money. Similar programs have saved millions of dollars in Georgia and Arizona.
But a year and a half after Rhode Island signed up, no one’s been deported early because of the relatively small population of imprisoned illegal immigrants and the strict program criteria.
Prison officials say the program works but they haven’t yet found an eligible inmate.
Critics of Carcieri’s 2008 crackdown on illegal immigrants question whether the governor exaggerated the scope of the problem locally.
