Starting Monday night, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department began releasing hundreds of inmates held in the county jails.

As many as 500 inmates could be released by the end of the week as a result of a new state law increasing the amount of time offenders can get off for good behavior, part of a legislative effort to reduce costs and balance the state budget.

"It's a glimpse of the shape of things to come," Sheriff John McGinness said, adding that this "is not a local cost-saving effort."

In the past, nonviolent inmates who showed good behavior while in custody would serve two-thirds of their sentence.

The new law, which went into effect Jan. 25, reduced the time they had to serve to half of the sentence, McGinness said. He said that officials and attorneys interpreted the law to be retroactive.

That has meant hundreds of nonviolent offenders needed to be released for the county to be in compliance with the state law, McGinness said.

The county usually releases 100 to 150 inmates a day.

The Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association blasted the move.

Kevin Mickelson, the association president, said local officers had no idea the state law would impact local jails.

While there has been extensive coverage of the potential early release of state prisoners, many did not realize inmates from local jails would also be eligible to get out.

"I'm perplexed by the fact we're talking about it almost after the fact," Mickelson said.