Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said that the Fernandez government would only issue pardons for prison inmates under extraordinary circumstances. He said the practice of freeing large numbers of inmates on Christmas, Independence Day and Restoration Day would be discontinued. The Mejia administration freed 2,612 inmates. During his previous administration, President Leonel Fernandez had signed 572 pardons. At the end of his government, President Mejia chose not to pardon 500 prisoners that had been promised release, and even had been taken to mass in a Centro de los Heroes church to give thanks. Dominguez Brito said that he would leave the release up to the new sentence judges, positions created under the new Penal Code that goes into effect in September.