CARSON CITY -- The state Pardons Board unanimously agreed Monday to move forward with the early release of as many as 500 prison inmates who are illegally in the U.S. so they can immediately be deported to their home countries.

The board, made up of Gov. Jim Gibbons, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and the seven members of the Supreme Court, will meet again in about two weeks to finalize the release of the first 154 such inmates.

The 154 inmates have already been granted parole, but have not served enough of their sentences yet to be released. The Pardons Board has the power to commute the sentences to allow for earlier release.

Gibbons said the board only wants to consider nonviolent offenders who could then be immediately deported to their country of origin. The board will likely meet monthly to consider as many as 40 to 45 of this class of inmates at a time for early release for deportation by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, he said.

If victim notification is required in some of the cases, their review could be delayed to the following month's hearing, Gibbons said.

In his introductory comments, Gibbons said: "We look forward to doing some meaningful work for the people of Nevada."

At the first such meeting tentatively set for early April, the board will hear a report from federal immigration officials providing assurances that the inmates will be deported and will not be released into the community where they could then abscond.

Supreme Court Justice Jim Hardesty said he would not have proposed the early release if there was any chance the inmates would not be immediately deported.

The Pardons Board also wants to hear from the U.S. Attorney's Office of a commitment to prosecute any of these inmates who return to Nevada.

Hardesty said any of these inmates being apprehended after returning to the U.S. face federal prison terms of up to 20 years.

The early release idea was first proposed by Hardesty, who is seeking ways to relieve prison overcrowding and save taxpayers money.

Of the 13,046 inmates in the system right now, 1,065 are subject to a hold by the U.S. government for deportation, he said. Some of them were convicted of violent crimes or sex offenses, so they would not be considered for early release by the Pardons Board.

But about 470 are serving time for a first-time felony conviction on a nonviolent offense. Moving them out of the prisons would save more than $9 million a year could be saved in Department of Corrections operating costs, officials said, adding that millions more in prison construction costs could also be saved.

The department is also seeking $300 million for prison construction in the coming two years, most for new beds because of a rising inmate population. That request could be reduced if hundreds of illegal resident inmates were released and deported.

A commitment has been made by the federal government to provide administrative law judges to hold deportation hearings for these inmates while they are in prison, Hardesty said. Some inmates don't qualify for deportation hearings, so that step won't be necessary.

Any early release program will be carried out with due process for the inmates, Hardesty said.

Justice Michael Cherry said the proposal has to be given a chance, but the board should keep close tabs on it to see how it works.

Gibbons said this group of inmates would be paroled eventually anyway. Expediting the process could save scarce tax dollars while still ensuring public safety, he said.