Source: Inslee: Error releases more than 3,000 inmates early
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday the Washington Department of Corrections has been making mistakes in calculating sentences for years, resulting in thousands of inmates leaving prison early.
And while that error was first discovered by corrections officials in 2012, the state never implemented a fix for it.
“These were serious errors with serious implications,” Inslee said. “When I learned of this I ordered DOC to fix this, fix it fast, and fix it right.”
The problem dates to 2002, Inslee explained at a noon news conference, when a state Supreme Court ruling required the Department of Corrections (DOC) to apply “good time” credits earned in county jail to state prison sentences. The department changed its coding to comply with the ruling, but over-credited good time for some offenders, according to Inslee.
A preliminary analysis by corrections officials indicates as many as 3,200 offenders may have been released early over the 13-year stretch. That‘s about 3 percent of all releases. Early estimates indicate the median number of days offenders were released from prison is 49 days before their correct release date.
Corrections officials first learned of the problem in December 2012, after a victim’s family concerned about the release of an offender notified the agency about the convict’s release date.
That same month, DOC consulted with legal counsel and scheduled a programming fix for the problem — but the fix was never made.
A newly hired chief information officer at DOC recently became aware of the severity of the problem and alerted DOC leadership, who then notified the governor.
“We’re going to fix this,” Inslee said. The state has retained two former federal prosecutors to conduct an independent investigation “to review all the of facts and circumstances,” he said.
Andrew Garber, DOC spokesman, said in an interview Tuesday that a detailed account of who knew what when after the problem was first discovered would await the results of the investigation.
Inslee made the announcement flanked by Nick Brown, the governor’s general counsel, and state Corrections Secretary Dan Pacholke.
Pacholke, who began as secretary Oct. 17, said he learned of the problem last week. Pacholke has been deputy secretary since 2014 and has more than 32 years with the agency. He began his career as a corrections officer and as deputy secretary, oversaw divisions including community corrections, health care and re-entry services.
Pacholke said DOC welcomed the investigation into the lapse and “the agency should be held accountable for this breach.”
“I’ve apologized to the governor personally on behalf of the Department of Corrections for this 13-year error,” said Pacholke. “I want to offer that same apology to the public. It’s an unforgivable error.”
The governor ordered DOC to halt all releases of prisoners whose sentences could have been affected until a hand calculation is done to ensure the offender is being released on the correct date. Brown said he was confident a software fix for sentencing calculations will be implemented next month.
Inslee said the state is working to locate offenders released early to ensure they complete their sentences. Depending on how much time they have left to serve, the offenders would go to work release or back to prison.
Law requires the state to give day-for-day credit in most cases to a prisoner who has been released and hasn’t been found to break any laws since, according to Brown. Because of that, many prisoners released early may not wind up being incarcerated again, he said.
The state does not have a complete list of names of those released early, according to Brown.
The shortest amount of time a prisoner was released early was a couple days, said Brown. In one case, the error shaved 600 days off a prisoner’s sentence — but that prisoner is still incarcerated, Brown said.
As to whether inmates released might have committed new crimes? “We don’t have the answer to that,” Brown said.
Inmates earn “good time” for good behavior, an incentive program that can reduce their sentences by up to 33 percent. It can be earned for good conduct, being free of infractions and participating in work and education programs.
Before a 2002 state Supreme Court decision, the state Department of Corrections only gave offenders credit for good behavior in state prisons, not for the time they initially spent in county jails.
When the court ruled that must change, the state sought to comply but a software mistake didn’t accurately compute the sequence for certain offenders.
Those offenders had received sentences that included extra time for committing crimes with weapons: an additional five years per charge for using a firearm, or an extra two years for another type of deadly weapon.
But only the regular part of the sentence was to be applied — not the extra time, called an enhancement.
But the software coding mistake applied good time credits to both the sentence and enhancement time, giving too much good time to offenders for the period spent in jail.
While no details of each case were provided Tuesday, the fact that some involved using a firearm or deadly weapon means that the crimes involved a violent element.
Inmates earn “good time” for good behavior, an incentive program that can reduce sentences by up to one third. It can be earned for good conduct, being free of infractions and participating in work and education programs.
Before a 2002 state Supreme Court decision, DOC gave offenders credit for good behavior only for time spent in state prisons, not time initially spent in county jails.
The state began to make the change, officials said Tuesday, but a software mistake didn’t make accurate calculations for certain offenders.
Those offenders had received sentences that included extra time for aggravating factors, such as an additional five years for using a firearm or two years for another type of deadly weapon. That is part of what is called an enhanced sentence.
The software coding mistakenly applied good-time credit to both the sentence and enhancement time, giving too much good time to offenders for the period spent in county jail.
While details of specific cases were not provided Tuesday, the fact that some involved using a firearm or deadly weapon means the crimes involved a violent element.
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday the Washington Department of Corrections has been making mistakes in calculating sentences for years, resulting in thousands of inmates leaving prison early.
And while that error was first discovered by corrections officials in 2012, the state never implemented a fix for it.
“These were serious errors with serious implications,” Inslee said. “When I learned of this I ordered DOC to fix this, fix it fast, and fix it right.”
The problem dates to 2002, Inslee explained at a noon news conference, when a state Supreme Court ruling required the Department of Corrections (DOC) to apply “good time” credits earned in county jail to state prison sentences. The department changed its coding to comply with the ruling, but over-credited good time for some offenders, according to Inslee.
A preliminary analysis by corrections officials indicates as many as 3,200 offenders may have been released early over the 13-year stretch. That‘s about 3 percent of all releases. Early estimates indicate the median number of days offenders were released from prison is 49 days before their correct release date.
Corrections officials first learned of the problem in December 2012, after a victim’s family concerned about the release of an offender notified the agency about the convict’s release date.
That same month, DOC consulted with legal counsel and scheduled a programming fix for the problem — but the fix was never made.
A newly hired chief information officer at DOC recently became aware of the severity of the problem and alerted DOC leadership, who then notified the governor.
“We’re going to fix this,” Inslee said. The state has retained two former federal prosecutors to conduct an independent investigation “to review all the of facts and circumstances,” he said.
Andrew Garber, DOC spokesman, said in an interview Tuesday that a detailed account of who knew what when after the problem was first discovered would await the results of the investigation.
Inslee made the announcement flanked by Nick Brown, the governor’s general counsel, and state Corrections Secretary Dan Pacholke.
Pacholke, who began as secretary Oct. 17, said he learned of the problem last week. Pacholke has been deputy secretary since 2014 and has more than 32 years with the agency. He began his career as a corrections officer and as deputy secretary, oversaw divisions including community corrections, health care and re-entry services.
Pacholke said DOC welcomed the investigation into the lapse and “the agency should be held accountable for this breach.”
“I’ve apologized to the governor personally on behalf of the Department of Corrections for this 13-year error,” said Pacholke. “I want to offer that same apology to the public. It’s an unforgivable error.”
The governor ordered DOC to halt all releases of prisoners whose sentences could have been affected until a hand calculation is done to ensure the offender is being released on the correct date. Brown said he was confident a software fix for sentencing calculations will be implemented next month.
Inslee said the state is working to locate offenders released early to ensure they complete their sentences. Depending on how much time they have left to serve, the offenders would go to work release or back to prison.
Law requires the state to give day-for-day credit in most cases to a prisoner who has been released and hasn’t been found to break any laws since, according to Brown. Because of that, many prisoners released early may not wind up being incarcerated again, he said.
The state does not have a complete list of names of those released early, according to Brown.
The shortest amount of time a prisoner was released early was a couple days, said Brown. In one case, the error shaved 600 days off a prisoner’s sentence — but that prisoner is still incarcerated, Brown said.
As to whether inmates released might have committed new crimes? “We don’t have the answer to that,” Brown said.
Inmates earn “good time” for good behavior, an incentive program that can reduce their sentences by up to 33 percent. It can be earned for good conduct, being free of infractions and participating in work and education programs.
Before a 2002 state Supreme Court decision, the state Department of Corrections only gave offenders credit for good behavior in state prisons, not for the time they initially spent in county jails.
When the court ruled that must change, the state sought to comply but a software mistake didn’t accurately compute the sequence for certain offenders.
Those offenders had received sentences that included extra time for committing crimes with weapons: an additional five years per charge for using a firearm, or an extra two years for another type of deadly weapon.
But only the regular part of the sentence was to be applied — not the extra time, called an enhancement.
But the software coding mistake applied good time credits to both the sentence and enhancement time, giving too much good time to offenders for the period spent in jail.
While no details of each case were provided Tuesday, the fact that some involved using a firearm or deadly weapon means that the crimes involved a violent element.
Inmates earn “good time” for good behavior, an incentive program that can reduce sentences by up to one third. It can be earned for good conduct, being free of infractions and participating in work and education programs.
Before a 2002 state Supreme Court decision, DOC gave offenders credit for good behavior only for time spent in state prisons, not time initially spent in county jails.
The state began to make the change, officials said Tuesday, but a software mistake didn’t make accurate calculations for certain offenders.
Those offenders had received sentences that included extra time for aggravating factors, such as an additional five years for using a firearm or two years for another type of deadly weapon. That is part of what is called an enhanced sentence.
The software coding mistakenly applied good-time credit to both the sentence and enhancement time, giving too much good time to offenders for the period spent in county jail.
While details of specific cases were not provided Tuesday, the fact that some involved using a firearm or deadly weapon means the crimes involved a violent element.
