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Washington state has been releasing convicted felons early, but it's not part of sentencing reform. State officials say the early releases have been happening by accident for more than 12 years because of a software glitch. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: It's tempting these days just to let the computers do the math, but on the important stuff, whether it's your bank balance or, in this case, the length of a prison sentence, sometimes it does pay to double check the results.
NICK BROWN: Approximately 3 percent of all released inmates since 2002 were released earlier than allowed by law.
KASTE: That's Nick Brown, the governor's general counsel, talking about a flaw in the software that Washington state uses to calculate prison sentences. He said the problem was first flagged three years ago when a crime victim's family was notified that the perpetrator was about to get out early.
BROWN: The family did its own calculation, determined that the offender was getting out earlier than the court had ordered and contacted the department to ask why this was happening.
KASTE: Turns out the software was improperly giving some inmates credit for good behavior. Even though the problem was discovered in 2012, the software was never fixed until the governor, Jay Inslee, says the problem finally reached his attention last month. And then he disclosed it to the media.
JAY INSLEE: That this problem was allowed to continue to exist for 13 years is deeply disappointing. It is totally unacceptable, and frankly, it is maddening.
KASTE: Washington state officials are now in full damage-control mode. Until the software's fixed, they say nobody's getting out of prison without a hand calculation of the release date. They say on average, convicts who got out early got out less than two months before the correct date. But still, General Counsel Brown acknowledged last week that some of those people probably committed crimes during the time they were supposed to be in prison.
BROWN: What we know is based on the law of averages. Approximately 10 percent of all inmates who are released from prison commit some new offense in the first year of their release.
KASTE: And sure enough, since last week, the Washington state Department of Corrections has been collecting the bad news. One convict has been charged with committing vehicular homicide after his early release. Another is charged with first-degree murder. In a conference call yesterday, secretary of corrections Dan Pacholke said the state is still digging into what crimes may have been committed by ex-cons in the period of time when they should have been in prison.
DAN PACHOLKE: I'm very concerned about what we will uncover as we move forward. You know, there's likely to be more crime that has been committed during that window, but I can't really speculate on the numbers. But it concerns me deeply about just the tragedy that is being produced.
KASTE: The state is now rounding people up. Convicts who were mistakenly released years ago and have stayed out of trouble don't have to worry about going back to prison. Instead, the state is focusing on people released more recently. At last count, 31 are back in custody. And it should be said that of those, most have not been accused of committing new crimes while on the outside. And for those who've been trying to hold on to jobs and restart their lives, this unexpected re-incarceration comes has come as an unwelcome shock. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Seattle.