Subpoenas Issued for Documents About Release of Prisoners

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Legislative subpoenas have been issued for documents related to the erroneous early release of thousands of prisoners in Washington state.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen signed two subpoenas Tuesday night after the Senate Rules Committee, on a 13-7 vote, approved a resolution passed earlier in the day by the Senate Law and Justice Committee.

The subpoenas are issued to the Department of Corrections Secretary Dan Pacholke and the governor's general counsel. The subpoenas seek documents related to a software coding error that led to the early release of up to 3,200 prisoners since 2002 due to miscalculated sentences. At least two deaths have been tied to the early releases. They will be issued by the state patrol on Wednesday morning.

A software fix to the coding error, publicly disclosed by Gov. Jay Inslee on Dec. 22, was implemented this month.