Governor Releases Early Prisoner Release Report

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A nearly two-month investigation into the early release of prisoners over a 13-year period has found that a series of errors and lack of prioritization or follow up by several employees at the Department of Corrections was to blame for the agency's failure to quickly fix the error once it was brought to their attention.

A 52-page report created by two former federal prosecutors was released by Gov. Jay Inslee Thursday afternoon. The investigators say that they found nothing in their investigation that was criminally actionable.

The report makes several recommendations, including requiring the state attorney general to review and approve all advice from that office to the Department of Corrections. It also calls for the agency to appoint an outside monitor, changes to the prioritization process for IT issues, and requiring assistant secretaries to be notified of any system-wide errors affecting sentencing, release or supervision of offenders.

The release of the report comes as a Senate panel continues to hold public hearings as part of its own separate probe related to a software coding error at the Department of Corrections that led to the early release of more than 3,000 since 2002 because of miscalculated sentences. At least two deaths have been tied to the early releases.