Thomas E. Bryant Jr., convicted of six counts of first-degree theft of property, was paroled in 2004 by the temporary state board set up to help empty Alabama's crowded prison system.

The Mobile Register discovered Bryant's parole recently when a reporter looking up another inmate's status happened upon his name.

While eight years is a relatively long time to serve in nonviolent cases, according to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, news of Bryant's release is likely to be of interest to sentencing-reform proponents as well as Mobilians who were outraged by the attorney's crimes.

In 2002, when Bryant was granted a work release, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. asked then-Gov. Don Siegelman office to put Bryant back behind bars. The request was granted.

Tyson learned of the 2002 work release from the Register, and Bryant, who's now 71, declined comment Thursday when reached at his home in Birmingham.

"Last time I talked to someone from Mobile, I had to go back to prison for two years," Bryant said.

When Bryant was returned to prison after being allowed to live in a Birmingham suburb, he was assigned to the Childersburg Work Center in Talladega County. As an inmate there, he took part in a supervised work program designed for prisoners who are within four years of their expected release.

At that time, his anticipated release date was 2115. Instead, Bryant was released July 12, 2004, said Cynthia Dillard, deputy director of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Dillard said that as Alabama moves toward so-called truth in sentencing, more nonviolent criminals such as Bryant will receive shorter sentences.

The truth-in-sentencing concept calls for the actual time served by prisoners to more closely reflect the number of years judges hand down.

Truth-in-sentencing advocates, many of them crime victims who feel mistreated or misled by the justice system, say that parole and time off for good behavior too often undercut the will of judges and district attorneys.

Miriam Shehane, director of Victims of Crime and Leniency, or VOCAL, said it's better for victims to know for certain how long a criminal will serve at sentencing than to later receive a letter from the parole board informing them of an early release.

"If the sentences aren't as long, when you walk out of the courtroom you'll be assured that sentencing (will stay the same)," said Shehane, whose group is based in Montgomery.

Bryant was released by a temporary board that lawmakers created in 2003 at the urging of Gov. Bob Riley, who said the panel was needed to reduce prison overcrowding by expediting paroles. With more than 28,000 inmates, the state's prison population is again approaching its peak of about 28,500, reached before the creation of the second parole board.

Bryant, who was convicted of stealing $3.5 million from the bank accounts of retarded adults, orphaned children, physically handicapped veterans and others, deserved a long sentence, Tyson said.

The district attorney said there were more than 300 cases that his office could have brought against Bryant and didn't.

"There is really no question in my mind that he had been stealing for 20 years," Tyson said. "The suggestion that he didn't cause injury is ludicrous."

Most of the money that Bryant took was not recovered, and accountants never determined exactly how much was actually plundered.

"Don't tell me that white-collar crime doesn't result in injuries," Tyson said.

As county conservator from 1973 to 1995, Bryant managed the financial affairs of people deemed to be wards of the county. He opened accounts for them, managed their assets and issued checks to pay their medical bills and other expenses.

Bryant also managed the finances of private clients, and it was one of them who first suspected she'd been robbed. In 1995 attorneys for the woman alerted authorities after discovering that $1.8 million had seemingly disappeared from an account.

Bryant almost immediately admitted taking the money and checked himself into a mental hospital. He later claimed that his addiction to the prescription painkiller Lortab fueled his crimes.

Unless he is pardoned, Bryant will remain on parole until 2015, Dillard said.

"No doubt he has a lot of restitution," she said.

When he was sentenced, Bryant was ordered to pay $3.47 million in restitution to his victims. Bryant said in 2002 that he was trying to pay as much as he could, but, "I'm 68 years old. I don't have a whole lot of time left to pay it."

The Alabama Sentencing Commission is recommending voluntary sentencing guidelines for judges and district attorneys for 26 felony offenses. If those guidelines are adopted by the Legislature, the commission will continue to move closer toward truth in sentencing, said Lynda Flynt, the commission's executive director.

Flynt said the commission does not specifically look at white-collar crimes, such as those Bryant committed, but rather treats theft as the state's criminal code does -- based on the amount of money taken.

Under the Alabama Criminal Code, a first-degree theft of property -- Bryant had six counts -- is defined as: theft of property, which exceeds $2,500 in value, or property of any value taken from the person of another.

"I would much rather see (Bryant) out then see a murderer out," Flynt said. "And that's what it's going to come down to: Who are you going to release? The violent, the ones that you are afraid of ... or the ones that you aren't scared of?"

Tyson said that despite prison overcrowding, Bryant deserves to be in prison.

"We are just going to have to build more prisons, aren't we?" he said.

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