Thousands of prisoners in 13 years turned out to be released earlier than planned due to system error

ByPedro Vera

In the prison jurisdiction of the Washington Correction Bureau in the United States, it was found that there was a coding error in the software that calculates the accommodation period, and the accommodation period was miscalculated for 13 years. The number of prisoners released in 13 years earlier than scheduled is more than 3000 people.

'Totally unacceptable': State knew thousands of inmates released in error | The Seattle Times
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/inslee-error-releases-inmates-early-since-2002/

Washington State Governor Jay Inslay announced that the Washington Correction Bureau had miscalculated prisoners' shelters since 2002. In addition, we also knew that the bereaved family who thought "release is too early" in 2012 was reported to Washington Correction Bureau, and some staff members were aware of software errors. The governor commented, "It has been awfully lucky that this problem continued to exist for 13 years, it is not a very acceptable problem, I feel even more angry to speak frankly."

According to the Washington Correction Bureau's report, about 3,200 prisoners, 3% of the total affected by software miscalculation in 13 years, were released on average 55 days earlier than the official release date . At a press conference, the governor will solve a series of problems such as "amendment of accommodation period calculation software at the beginning of January 2016", "employ two former federal prosecutors and conduct surveys independent of corrective authority" He announced measures for him, he accidentally reinsured five people who have been released. The governor also requests the Correction Bureau to reconfirm the prison term by manual calculation of the sentence of the prisoner who is affected by the software and to stop the prisoner's release until the correct sentence is guaranteed.

ByOlli Homann

Regarding the question "Why was not the problem solved in 2012?" That came out at a press conference, Correction Bureau replied that "Software modifications were deferred repeatedly". Despite having labeled the file "ASAP (urgently doing)" in the file, the person in charge who summarized this problem in the document did not operate properly in the queue of IT related correction items, so it repeatedly It is explained that it was postponed.

In the law of the United States, there is a system that reduces one third of the sentence to the model prisoner called "Good Time credit" at maximum. By contrast, for persons who have caused crime or sexual offense related to firearms or weapons, there is a rule to extend the term of accommodation, but Good Time credit does not apply to firearms, weapons and sexual offenses . Software with errors gave Good Time credit to all criminals and applied Good Time credit that was too long due to miscalculation.

In addition, it is not yet decided about dealing with prisoners who have already been released, and whether future prisoners released at an early date did not cause a crime after their origination will be found in future surveys.