OLYMPIA — A Washington state Republican Senate panel investigation casts blame at both Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and former Department of Corrections Secretary Bernie Warner for a three-year delay in fixing an error that led to the early release of thousands of prisoners.
The report was released Wednesday, three months after Inslee released his own independent report conducted by two former federal prosecutors that found that a series of missteps within the agency and the lack of prioritization or follow up by several employees were to blame for the agency’s failure to quickly fix the software programming error once it was brought to their attention. The error, which affected sentencing calculations, ultimately led to the early release of about 3,000 prisoners. The error went unnoticed at the agency for more than a decade and then went unfixed for an additional three years.
At least two deaths have been tied to the early releases.
While Warner drew most of the lawmakers’ ire, Inslee was criticized in the latest report for not having more oversight over the agency.
The Senate report says that the governor’s report ignored key issues related to how the agency was run, saying that “mismanagement was systemic, and it started at the top levels of state government.”
“This was not a ‘software glitch,”’ the report reads. “It was a failure of leadership.”
The lawmakers suggested legislation that incorporates several of their report recommendations, which include a review of staffing levels in the IT and records departments, requiring the governor to have systems in place to directly monitor performance at key agencies, and requiring an agency-wide hand count in the event of any future computer error that leads to early prisoner releases. The lawmakers also want to create an ombuds office at the Department of Corrections that is independent of both the agency and the governor.
In a written statement, Inslee spokeswoman Jaime Smith said that there was “nothing new” in the Senate report.
“Senate Republicans say exactly what the governor has been saying for months – that this starts with Bernie Warner,” she wrote, calling the report “a clearly partisan effort that is already being used for political purposes.”
The problem began with the agency’s move to comply with a July 2002 state Supreme Court ruling that required the Department of Corrections to apply good-behavior credits earned in county jail to state prison sentences. However, an incorrect computer formula ended up giving prisoners with sentencing enhancements too much so-called good time credit.
The agency was first alerted to the error in December 2012, when a victim’s family learned of a prisoner’s imminent release. The family did its own calculations and found he was being credited with too much time.
An assistant attorney general advised the agency at the time that it wasn’t necessary to manually recalculate other prisoners’ sentences, saying that waiting for a programming fix for the other cases should be sufficient. However, that fix was repeatedly delayed for the next three years.
That delay, the report states, “was largely due to failed management, starting with former Secretary Warner’s grossly inadequate management style and practices.”
The Senate, which held a series of public hearings earlier this year, cited employees who said Warner was a poor communicator who failed to make timely decisions.
Warner, who was appointed by then-Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2011, left his job last October to work at a private company in Utah that runs prisons in eight states. A phone message left for Warner was not immediately returned.
The report argues that “lack of competent oversight from the governor’s office contributed to the delay” of the required fix and that “the governor’s office failed to recognize the serious management problems within DOC and took no action to correct them. “
The fallout from the error included a resignation, two demotions and two reprimands of state employees. But the Senate report says that the governor, who is up for re-election this year, focused on blaming mid-level managers instead of higher up the chain at the agency or within the governor’s office.
Republican Sen. Mike Padden, the chairman of the Senate Law and Justice Committee, said Wednesday that the Senate’s report “is another viewpoint, and, I think, a valid one.”
The Senate report notes that while the panel’s investigation has “largely concluded” it may later issue a supplemental report if the senators receive more information.
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