Thousands of felons released early from Wash. prisons

But officials have identified at least seven prisoners who were freed but havent reached their corrected release date yet, and they will need to return to prison.

State officials said that many early-release prisoners would have to return to jail to finish their sentences. Depending on how much time they have left to serve, the offenders will go to work release or back to prison. Of that number, five have already been re-incarcerated. The problem was first discovered in 2012 when a victim’s family brought the issue to the attention of Department of Corrections officials.

CNN reports that the bug was introduced into computer systems in 2002, when an updated version of court rulings about good beahvior credits were introduced.

A timeline provided by the governor’s office shows the agency consulted with attorneys regarding the error the same month and scheduled a fix for the program.

A fix was repeatedly delayed “for reasons still being investigated”, according to a statement from the Governor’s office. Under state law, prisoners who get extra time for sentencing enhancements can not have that time reduced for good behavior. Most American news outlets are reporting that the DOC will try to locate offenders who have benefited from the monumental debacle to ensure they complete their sentences. He noted that one prisoner was released 600 days early.

The governor ordered the Department of Correction to halt all releases from prison until staff can verify that felons are being released on the correct date.

A preliminary analysis by DOC indicates that as many as 3,200 offenders may have been released early over the course of 13 years. The software is expected to be fixed by January 7.

The department is reviewing release dates of all inmates who would have been affected by the error, starting with the most recent cases.

Inslee said he has hired two retired federal prosecutors, Robert Westinghouse and Carl Blackstone, to conduct an independent investigation into why the error occurred and why it wasn’t resolved.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee said he had ordered immediate steps to correct the long-standing problem.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee says he found out last week about a computer glitch that’s been releasing state prisoners early since 2002.

The department’s programming fix to bring its sentencing into compliance with the ruling had an “inaccurate sequencing” that over-credited some offenders, Inslee said.

However, according to The Seattle Times, Inslee’s general counsel Nick Brown indicated if former prisoners haven’t broken any laws since their release, it is unlikely they will end up being incarcerated again.