Public safety concerns were running high across Alabama, following word of an imminent mass release of inmates. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office said the Department of Corrections was planning to free more than 400 convicts Tuesday, including at least 50 inmates convicted of murder and manslaughter. Marshall's office sued to block the release, claiming corrections officials failed to notify victims, as required by law. But a judge late Monday denied the request for a temporary restraining order. Jefferson County Republican Party Chairman Paul DeMarco, a former chairman of the Alabama House Judiciary Committee, blasted the planned mass release. "This is unfair to victims, and law-abiding citizens, to give an early release of violent felons on our streets," DeMarco said. "This mass release of 2 percent of the Department of Corrections population under the supervision responsibility of our already overstretched probation and parole officers does not put public safety first," DeMarco said. The release was the result of a 2021 sentencing reform law passed by the Legislature. The sponsor was state Rep. Jim Hill (R-Moody).