JACKSON - A former Mississippi Department of Corrections officer who stole inmates' identities to file false tax returns wants the state to grant her parole or trusty status so she can be released early to a federal halfway house.

Janice Singleton is serving a 52-month federal sentence for bank fraud, wire fraud, making false or fraudulent claims and aggravated identity theft after pleading guilty in December 2008.

She also pleaded guilty in Rankin County Circuit Court to identity theft and was given 30 months to serve.

The federal and state sentences are to run concurrently.

Singleton said she is scheduled to go before a Federal Bureau of Prisons committee in May and could get into a halfway house early and be able to go on furloughs.

However, she isn't eligible for the halfway house program as long as she isn't paroled or on trusty status in the state. She said she became eligible for parole in December.

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said the state Parole Board denied Singleton parole late last year.

As far as granting her trusty status, Epps said, "There is no way we are going to place her on trusty status when she isn't in our system."

Because Singleton was never in MDOC's system, she was never given an inmate classification, Epps said.

Singleton said she believes she is being treated unfairly because she is a former MDOC corrections officer.

"I know what I did was wrong, and I'm paying for my mistakes and I regret everyday of my life that I failed the system."