SPRINGFIELD -- The first prison inmates to go home under Illinois' new early release program could be out within a month, the director of the state Corrections Department said Monday.

Michael Randle said it will take two to four weeks to review the prisoners' files, inspect the places they'll be living and set them up with a parole agent and electronic monitoring. Randle said it's not clear how long it will take to release all of the roughly 1,000 eligible inmates.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Randle also acknowledged the release program is much smaller than was originally contemplated, while layoffs of guards and other personnel are continuing at the original levels.

That means the remaining guards will have to oversee more prisoners, but Randle said it can be done safely.

"I think we can manage it," said Randle, who recently took over the department after serving as assistant director of prisons in Ohio.

"Anytime you have more inmates in a smaller area and inmates lose personal space, it becomes more difficult to manage those situations," Randle added. "In a perfect world, I would love to have the staff, but the reality is the budget doesn't support that."

The union representing Illinois guards warns that prisons are already dangerously overcrowded and that cutting staff further will erode safety.

Trying to balance the state budget, Gov. Pat Quinn is looking at cutting about 1,000 of the prison system's roughly 11,000 jobs. When first discussed, the early release program was seen as likely to cut the number of prisoners by 8,000 to 10,000 out of the current total of 45,000.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is suing to block the layoffs.

Randle said Corrections Department officials whittled the release program down to just 1,000 by excluding anyone who could be considered a safety risk -- anyone with a sex offense, parole violations, a domestic abuse conviction and more.

Under the law allowing early release, the department didn't have to exclude so many inmates, he added.

"We were concerned about public safety and we wanted the criteria to be tougher," Randle said.

He stressed that these are nonviolent offenders who were sentenced to less than one year in prison. "So they're coming home anyway," Randle said.

Anyone released early will serve their parole on home detention with electronic monitoring.

Randle said the state's current stable of parole agents will be able to safely handle the additional three or four people they'll have to monitor under early release. AFSCME, the agents' union, questions the wisdom of giving overworked parole agents more people to monitor.

Officials say early release will cut prison costs by $5 million a year. But most of that savings will be eaten up by $4 million in higher parole costs and incentives for counties to avoid sending minor offenders to prison.