Senate Cost of DOC Probe Increases to More Than $100,000

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A Senate panel has allocated an additional $75,000 to an investigator hired to help that chamber with its inquiry into the erroneous early release of prisoners in Washington state.

The money approved Tuesday by the Facilities and Operations Committee is on top of the $50,000 cap the committee initially set last month, when the committee approved the hiring of Mark Bartlett, a partner at the firm of Davis Wright Tremaine.

The move comes a day after the Senate Law and Justice Committee held its first formal hearing on the software coding error that led to the early release of up to 3,200 prisoners since 2002 because of miscalculated sentences. At least two deaths have been tied to the early releases.

The Senate investigation has been running concurrently with a separate investigation conducted by two former federal prosecutors hired by Gov. Jay Inslee.