At least 3 prisoners released in error committed new crimes

Earlier this week, Gov. Jay Inslee held a news conference to discuss the mistake that has led to as many as 3,200 offenders released early since 2002.

Early estimates indicate that prisons released certain offenders an average of 55 days before they were supposed to be freed.

The ramifications of the undiscovered-then-delayed correction of the technological error reach beyond the inmates and victims involved. The “good time” credits are meant to only to be applied to the regular part of the sentence, but due to an error in the code they were applied to both.

The problem stems from a state Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that required the DOC to apply “good time” credits earned in county jail to state prison sentences.

“These were serious errors with serious implications”, Mr. Inslee said in a statement. However, the BBC adds that in one case, a prisoner was released 600 days earlier than he should have been.

Washington State citizens are likely joining in sentiment with their Governor, who feels “that this problem was allowed to continue for 13 years is deeply disappointing [to me], totally unacceptable and, frankly, maddening”.

The Department of Corrections was first alerted to the error in December 2012, when a victim’s family learned of a prisoner’s imminent release. The Corrections Department and governor’s office have not released the names of those inmates who have been sent back to prison, or the name of the family who alerted the agency to the problem. When the Supreme Court made a decision to change this, DoCs around the United States had to update the software that calculated prison sentences.

It came to light that the problem had been happening for 13 years, meaning large volumes of prisoners were released before their sentences were complete.

Inslee told corrections officials to stop releasing prisoners affected by the glitch until a hand calculation is done to ensure the offender is being released on the correct date. “I have a lot of questions about how and why this happened, and I understand that members of the public will have those same questions”.

An independent investigation is already in process by former federal prosecutors Robert Westinghouse and Carl Blackstone, with Islee promising “the proper level of accountability depending on the results of [the] investigation”. State officials are working to identify and locate the inmates prematurely released, returning five of seven identified so far into custody.