Oct 8, 2015 1 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Thirty federal prisoners will be released in Western Pennsylvania at the end of the month as part of a change in sentencing guidelines.

Chief U.S. Probation Officer Belinda Ashley tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that of the inmates, 27 are scheduled to be released through the Pittsburgh office, two through Johnstown and one through the Erie office.

Ashley says most of the prisoners will spend time in a halfway house while they adjust to being out of prison.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission reduced the sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug offenders in 2014, shaving the sentences an average of two years.

The commission’s regulation set Nov. 1 as the earliest a prisoner could be released because of a sentence reduction.