The Washington State Department of Corrections has released approximately 3,200 inmates early from state prisons due to an error in calculating sentences, Gov. Jay Inslee said on Tuesday. Over the last 13 years, prisoners' "good time" credits earned in country jail and then applied to state sentences were excessive due to a calculating glitch, said Inslee, according to CNN.
"That this problem was allowed to continue for 13 years is deeply disappointing to me, totally unacceptable and, frankly, maddening," Inslee said in a statement.
"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. I expect the external investigation will bring the transparency and accountability we need to make sure this issue is resolved," the governor added.
This miscalculation, averaging around 49 days early on inmates' releases, has correction officials scrambling to locate the released inmates to ensure they "fulfill their sentences as required by law," said Inslee.
The ex-offenders will get "day for day" good credit for their time in the community and could even go to work release, depending on how much time remains to be served on their sentence, said officials, according to My Fox 8.
The problem was first learned in 2012 and a fix was initiated by the DOC, but the sequencing fix has been repeatedly delayed, noted Inslee, who plans to get to the bottom of the issue. Inslee has hired two retired federal prosecutors, Robert Westinghouse and Carl Blackstone, to perform independent reviews on why this issue has taken 13 years to resolve.
"These were serious errors with serious implications. When I learned of this, I ordered DOC to fix this, fix it fast, and fix it right," the governor said in a statement, according to the Canada Journal.
"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," Inslee added. "I expect the external investigation will bring the transparency and accountability we need to make sure this issue is resolved."
A temporary halt to all releases is in place and hand calculations will be performed, according to officials who also noted a Jan. 7 date has been set for the software fix to properly calculate the inmates release dates.
