LITTLE ROCK, AR - The state Board of Corrections invoked the Emergency Powers Act on Tuesday, making up to 665 prison inmates eligible for early parole hearings.

To help ease overcrowding, the act authorizes the prison board to move parole hearings up 90 days for parole-eligible inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes. The act has been invoked every 90 days since 1998.

State prison units housed 12,835 inmates - 11,975 men and 860 women - on Tuesday, 532 more than the capacity of 12,303, prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler said. Another 552 state prisoners - 395 men and 157 women - were being held in county jails because there was no room for them in the prison system, she said.

Originally, the Emergency Powers Act allowed the board to grant parole hearings for state inmates when the prison population exceeded 98 percent of capacity for 30 consecutive days.

In 2003, the Legislature expanded the act to allow the board to make nonviolent offenders who have served at least six months eligible for early parole when the number of state prisoners housed in county jails exceeds 500.

Tyler said Tuesday's decision by the board does not allow the 665 to go free. It allows them to receive an early hearing before the state Parole Board. The hearings probably will not begin for several weeks, she said.

Tyler said Tuesday that 100 female inmates have been moved to the new women's unit at Wrightsville. The unit, which will ultimately hold 200 women, is expected to be fully operational by late summer.