Software Error Releases Up To 3,200 Inmates Early (seattletimes.com) 211
An anonymous reader writes: Governor Jay Inslee announced Tuesday that software used by the Washington Department of Corrections has been making mistakes in calculating sentences since 2002, resulting in thousands of inmates leaving prison early. Corrections officials learned of a problem in 2012. A patch to fix the faulty software will be implemented next month. Here's how the bug happened: When people are convicted of a crime, they're given a base sentence. On top of that, there can be extra periods of time — for example, using a firearm might add five years on top of the base sentence. While in prison, inmates can earn time off their sentence for good behavior or participating in work/education programs — but it can only apply to their base sentence. The software involved applied the inmates' good behavior credits to each section of their sentence. The Corrections Department is now trying to track down released inmates to make some of them finish their terms.
Pre-order for only $30MM tax dollars! (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the software was released early, too.
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Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow... How fucking maliciously vindictive and petty can Uncle Sam get?
"Yeah, good job getting your life back together, congrats on landing that new job - Now get back in the goddamned cage."
They should fight it out in court befor going back (Score:5, Insightful)
They should fight it out in court before going back in demand a trail before the can be put back in to prison.
Re:They should fight it out in court befor going b (Score:4, Insightful)
With what money are they going to hire a lawyer to do that?
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public defender / a rights lawsuit where the lawyers will come to them
Will they get one (Score:2)
ah (Score:2)
spoken like someone who has never relied on a public defender.
Re:They should fight it out in court befor going b (Score:5, Insightful)
The tough on crime crowd, also known as the board of directors of for-profit prisons, has done a fine job of kneecapping public defenders. To the point that in some areas they have as little as 15 minutes on average to dedicate to a particular case. As such people who can't afford a private lawyer are told to just plead guilty and take whatever leniency the judge feels like granting that day, even if there is clear cut evidence of their innocence. Add in mandatory minimums and you get a nice steady stream of easy convicts the prisons rake in profit from.
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The tough on crime crowd, also known as the board of directors of for-profit prisons
Actually the people who put the biggest lobbying pressure on being "tough on crime" are the prison guard unions, and indeed, there's a lot of scandal and coverup involved in it too.
http://mic.com/articles/41531/... [mic.com]
http://www.nationalreview.com/... [nationalreview.com]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
In fact, in a lot of states they're the biggest one pushing against legalization of Marijuana. Why? Because it gives them LOTS of job security, perhaps more so than any other crime. But, don't let the pro union types hear this, or e
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Good luck with that. The Marshal Service is just going to show up and put them in handcuffs; it's not going to be a discussion. You can't get justice once you're in the system... and apparently not once you're out, either.
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Could they sue? Time and money invested in building a new life up wasted due to the incompetence of the state. Compensation for loss of job, property etc.
Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Informative)
Please read the article before posting:
"Many prisoners released early may not wind up being re-incarcerated, according to Brown. The law requires the state to give day-for-day credit in most cases to a prisoner who has been released early and hasn’t been found to break any laws since, he said."
Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Funny)
Please read the article before posting:
You must be new here
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Yes, please do:
"Inslee said the state is working to locate offenders released early who need to complete their sentences. Five have been returned to prison, according to Brown."
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Find me anyone who hasn't broken any laws in a given day, week, or month! As many respectable sources point out, you break the law every day without even knowing it: e.g. http://www.washingtonsblog.com... [www.washingtonsblog.com]
Nonsense. And debunked. The cases presented are extremely rare; situations that happen to very, very few people every year. "You" (most people) never break any of these laws without knowing, not once in your life. "You break the law every day without knowing it" is absolute nonsense.
Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Insightful)
Find me anyone who hasn't broken any laws in a given day, week, or month! As many respectable sources point out, you break the law every day without even knowing it: e.g. http://www.washingtonsblog.com... [washingtonsblog.com] If you don't feel like reading, watch here from 5:18 to 6:18, or even further until to 7:18 for some fun examples. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
IF I were to agree with you that everyone breaks the law everyday, it still wouldn't change the fact that the statement was you would get credit for the days as long as you weren't FOUND to have broke the law.
Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Informative)
This sounds like par for the course. They have something called "Compassionate Release" -- it sounds quite magnanimous but is actually incredibly petty: throwing seriously ill inmates out onto the pavement to reduce medical expenses.
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The Corrections Department is now trying to track down released inmates to make some of them finish their terms.
Wow... How fucking maliciously vindictive and petty can Uncle Sam get?
"Yeah, good job getting your life back together, congrats on landing that new job - Now get back in the goddamned cage."
I don't know if you're American, but if you're not, this kind of thing happens all the time here.
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Go track those people down and throw them in jail.
And use the same software to calculate their sentencing?
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Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed, 100%. Certainly telling them their debt to society is paid and then going back for more is unusual. It has an element of cruelty to it as well.
If anyone wonders why some people act as if society is their enemy, here's the answer, because it acts like an enemy.
Read the Article (Score:2, Insightful)
The article gives a little more insight than the headline.
There will be a one for one standard - those who have remained crime-free for 10 days, for example, will be excused for 10 days of sentence.
But, those who were released 600 days early have to go in and finish their time.
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Technically not Uncle Same (Score:2)
Technically speaking, this isn't 'Uncle Sam', which would be the federal government. This is the Washington state correctional system that's being petty. Generally speaking, shorter sentences than we assign here in the states are better for various reasons.
So - Either we track down these released felons, who are doing what they're supposed to, in which case we don't need to spend the ~$50k/year to lock them up, or they're back to criminal behavior, in which case they'll show back up in prison from that.
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There's a simple and reasonably fair solution. Tack it on to their next sentence. If they're doing well in society, employed, supporting themselves and their families, and not committing new crimes, leave them alone. The point of prison is supposed to be to reform criminals and there wouldn't be any point in disrupting the lives of people who have been reformed. That couldn't possibly have a positive effect on society.
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They get money from incarcerated prisoners...
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The Corrections Department is now trying to track down released inmates to make some of them finish their terms.
Wow... How fucking maliciously vindictive and petty can Uncle Sam get?
"Yeah, good job getting your life back together, congrats on landing that new job - Now get back in the goddamned cage."
I concur with you. I am willing to bet that most, if not all of the released (on error) inmates are not recidivists. They returned to home, job, and in many cases, back to spouse. The reason the government wants them back is for the contract--for profit prisons are great. Its time that the USA should empty their prisons of pot smokers, or bad debt prisoners.
Re:Why do you hate America? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it's not the same at all. If the cell was unlocked (and all of the other doors leading out of the prison) the prisoner still knows that it's a mistake. In this case everyone, including the state, believed that the proper time was served. The proper papers for the release were signed and the possessions were returned. The people left prison in good faith believing they served their debt to society. Someone escaping jail through an unlocked door knows full well that what they are doing is wrong.
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Implying the prisoners snuck out early is a lie.
The system screwed up... (Score:2)
The Corrections Department is now trying to track down released inmates to make some of them finish their terms.
We can't let criminals get off on a technicality.
Re:The system screwed up... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The system screwed up... (Score:4, Funny)
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That's a legal technicality, not a technical technicality.
What's the difference? Humans still chose to process the inmates for release, fill-out paperwork, return their property to them, arrange for transportation, and open the gates. Even if the humans were advised by a computer, a human still created the computer and programmed the computer, and were in-charge of the computer, and those humans are representatives of the State. At any time in the process those representatives of the State could have chosen to audit the computer results, and from a sanity-persp
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Well, I recommend we sentence that computer to 365 days of Windows ME.
FTFY
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This [thisamericanlife.org] is probably the case you're referring to.
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You want to hear something crazy? I read a report once that mentioned that it's estimated that 80% of first time offenders are so put off by the immediate results of being caught - arrest, charging, booking, and the trial that any actual punishment is superfluous and that they won't re-offend. Putting them in prison actually increases the odds that they're re-offend because of the extra disadvantages when they get out.
Consider classical conditioning - the closer the punishment is to the offense, the more
Easy fix (Score:2)
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"Up to?" (Score:5, Interesting)
Is that "Up to" as in, we don't actually KNOW a number?
I actually find that to be the more alarming issue.
Cruel and Unusual (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Cruel and Unusual (Score:5, Funny)
It occurred to me that if we replaced airbags with shotgun cartridges people might start driving carefully and stop running into other cars and things.
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It occurred to me that if we replaced airbags with shotgun cartridges people might start driving carefully and stop running into other cars and things.
No they wouldn't. This isn't very far from the state of affairs before seatbelts became mandatory equipment, and nobody cared much back then that people were dying in droves. Not even the drivers themselves. (Volvo cared though, and invented seatbelts.)
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I remember reading that the windows and windshields used to be made of ordinary glass, which caused horrible and fatal mutilations due to being turned into flying glass shards.
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You'd have to hit the steering wheel pretty hard with your head to detonate that embedded shotgun cartridge.
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Just buy a Honda. The airbag shoots metal fragments at the driver. It's known to cause fatalities. Of course you can't make that decision for other people, but feel free to get one for yourself if you think it will help your driving.
Tracking them down again? (Score:3, Insightful)
Can they do that after they've been released?
Why not just leave these people alone? Why as a taxpayer am I being forced to re-incarcerate anyone?
It's bad enough that we have this many people in jail to begin with. Who exactly does re-incarcerating people benefit? Most jails in America are overpopulated to begin with, and now... we want to put more people in?
Software issue or not, this is stupid.
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Why not just leave these people alone?
Because they didn't spend the amount of time in jail that their sentence called for.
Why as a taxpayer am I being forced to re-incarcerate anyone?
The cost of collecting the people who were mistakenly released is probably very small in most cases compared to the cost of their actual incarceration. So what you're really asking is, "Why should taxpayers foot the bill for putting criminals in jail?" Are you suggesting that we bill their families, instead? Who else did you think was going to pay for maintaining a convicted criminal's time in prison?
It's bad enough that we have this many people in jail to begin with.
That is definitely tr
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Depends on the crime. I don't think that most of the people in prison/jail belong there. It only makes them a further liability to society. Instead of making people totally worthless, how about we either A- have better alternatives to a for-profit prison system, like public humiliation, or B - actually make something useful out of these people?
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how about we either A- have better alternatives to a for-profit prison system
So you'd rather have a prison run by volunteers? By people who don't make a living while dealing with criminals?
public humiliation
So, if someone wrecks your business, or steals from you, or rapes your daughter, or kills your friend ... public humiliation! There, everything's better now.
Why do you think that people who don't have the integrity to hold off on committing crimes are going to care about your idea of humiliation? Or are you advocating for something really, really atrocious and cruel? Ever read that part of th
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Except most people in jail are none of the above. Either that, or you really don't know what crime statistics look like in American cities, or have family that is or has been in jail.
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It's bad enough that we have this many people in jail to begin with.
That is definitely true. Fewer people should commit crimes.
We have more than anywhere else in the world. At some point we have to admit we have a problem. It was a good idea when it was pitched in the '50s as a means of making every Black man a felon, so we could strip all them of the right to vote. But it turns out that experiment was a failure. How many centuries until we admit that error and correct it?
As much as you don't want to admit it, putting people in prison *causes* crime.
Making convicted criminals complete their prison sentences is stupid?
No, violating the release terms of the citizens is wrong and evil. They were
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As much as you don't want to admit it, putting people in prison *causes* crime.
So let me get this straight. You go into a liquor store and threaten to kill someone if they don't give you their money. You get caught, and are put into prison for being a violent douche. Being put into prison is what, through time travel, causes you to have committed the crime in the first place.
You would prefer the scenario where: You go into a liquor store and threaten to kill someone if they don't give you their money. You get caught. You are given a pat on the head, and the lack of consequence for
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You would prefer the scenario where: You go into a liquor store and threaten to kill someone if they don't give you their money. You get caught. You are given a pat on the head, and the lack of consequence for being a violent douche magically causes you to change your ways and never do such a thing again.
That's what happens when young rich white kids do it. And they grow up to not be in prison. It's not about a single person, but when the system is so obviously rigged, it makes the system fail to work. Prison isn't a deterrent when someone expects to end up there no matter what they do. Sandra Bland was pulled over for a trivial traffic offense, and ended up dead in jail. That's the reality. That you don't like reality, and that reality causes crime, won't change reality.
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Sandra Bland was pulled over for a trivial traffic offense
Right. But then she didn't act anything like a person being cited for a traffic violation. And when she ended up being brought in she (as she'd tried multiple times before) killed herself. That is the reality. You're saying that, through some sort of time travel, her mental inability to act normally and her existing suicidal tendencies caused her detainment, which in turn rippled back through time and caused her to be arrested? Do you even listen to yourself?
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But then she didn't act anything like a person being cited for a traffic violation.
Yeah, she acted like an uppity Nigger, and deserved to die.
The cop asked her if she was nervous. She said yes. The cop asked why (hoping to hear something incriminating) , and she said she was nervous because she was pulled over. The cop then asked her "are you done yet" because her direct answer to his direct question took more than 3 words, and she responded that she was just answering his question. The cop recognized the uppity bitch was right, and so he arrested her.
It was a by the book lynching f
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You're paying so the person can repay his debt to you. Or something.
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A corporation lost some profit due to an administrative error. That cannot go uncorrected.
Idiotic that people will be put back in prison. (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously? We're going to track down people who've likely served years in prison just so they can serve (on average) another 55 days? This is incredibly idiotic. Here's why:
It's expensive to put people back in prison.
Anyone who has a job would likely lose their job when they have to serve another month in prison. Thus making t
Python (Score:2)
Pretty sure there's a built-in Python module to manage inmates' sentences.
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Nope, no Python module, the Feds don't trust the Snakes. Emacs does have a key-combo to try, convict and manage sentences though.
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Being an emacs aficionado myself, I find this the funniest remark on slashdot this year. But hey - there's eight days to go, yet.
Requirements, requirements, requirements... (Score:2)
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A few years ago, I saw a talk by someone from the IRS. They said that they were trying to get Congress to use a reduced set of sentence constructions, as quite a bit of analyst's time is in trying to figure out what the hell the laws passed mean, and trying to translate it into logic they can put into their software.
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The weird thing is, the Law already is code. I mean, not only does it call the list of rules a "code" but it shares many features and problems of software code.
For instance, there is a lot of duplication of effort—descriptions of sections codified within the sections themselves; tables of contents distributed at multiple levels of the structure willy-nilly (not sure the software analog of this..); attempts to avoid duplication by referencing other laws or sections of other laws; and a weird runtime pa
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The single thing that would benefit law best is a sunset clause on laws. Explicit action needed to renew silly laws would help clean up some of the stupid ones. Though, it'd have to be written intelligently, or we'd get a "renew all laws" vote at the start of every session, and no review of the laws themselves.
Re: Requirements, requirements, requirements... (Score:2)
Case law could be considered LD_PRELOAD.
Knowledge of math is sometimes important (Score:2)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing to see. Move along. (Score:5, Informative)
Folks, most of these "early releases" were around 45 days early. Nothing to see. Move along.
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these algorithms may be immensely complicated (Score:2)
QC? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is not a software error.... (Score:2)
This is software working exactly as written. An error would be it adding 2 + 2 and getting 3.99999999999997.
This is an error of either the coder, who didn't want to bother coding in the exceptions to the good behavior rules, or the project manager who didn't provide the good behavior exceptions to the coder, or perhaps even the state, for not highlighting the necessity of the exceptions to the software provider.
The code is blameless here. #notallcode
They probably outsourced that pesky 'coding' work (Score:2)
...and are now totally getting what they deserve.
Found in 2012... still not fixed (Score:3)
Amazing.... They probably could have re-written the software from scratch in that amount of time....
Corrections Department or Telco? (Score:2)
Replace "The Corrections Department" with the name of your favourite Telco and it still sounds plausable!
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Hey, calendars are really hard.
I wish they would make a library for that, or something...
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Even with good libraries to do the math, handling dates can be difficult. In large part this is due to the ambiguous way people talk about dates in natural language.
Consider a simple example: It's Sunday. An associate says "let's have a meeting next Tuesday." Will you meet 2 days later, or 8 days later? In my experience it's about a 50/50 ratio which meaning was intended by the speaker.
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Agreed, and it also helps if you know that 2 + 7 = 9, not 8... ;-)
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the cost to lock people up is high
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In whose favor?
How about we get rid of time based sentencing? (Score:4, Insightful)
Once you are caught and sentenced, that's it. Do the time. If you don't behave in prison, you get MORE time.
How about we get rid of time based sentences period? You're sentenced, not to X years, but to a program that must be completed. Which program you end up in depends on your crime and circumstances.
Say you're a high school dropout caught breaking into cars to steal shit to feed your drug habit. You get 'sentenced' to an education and drug treatment program. Once you've gotten your GED and completed rehab, you're released.
On the other hand, take a high school graduate gang banger dealer. That sentencing might be to an anti-gang course and trade school/associates degree. Bust your ass, out in a year. Don't bother? You could be there for the next 20...
Come back? Well, next step up in the program - much more difficult.
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