Gov. Jay Inslee is expected this week to release findings of an independent investigation into the mistaken release of hundreds of convicted criminals before they finished serving their terms.
Inslee planned to be briefed Monday evening by the two retired federal prosecutors hired by his office to carry out the probe, according to a letter released by the governor’s office.
He then will take the “next day or two” to work with the Department of Corrections leadership to “fully consider and implement the appropriate personnel actions and any additional next steps,” he wrote in the letter to Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley.
“As promised, I will make the full investigation available to the public and members of the Legislature this week,” he wrote.
Padden is chairman of the Senate Law and Justice Committee which is conducting its own inquiry of the causes of the error and why it did not get fixed when the state Department of Corrections became aware of the problem in late 2012.
On Monday, the committee planned to hear from four witnesses in a scheduled three-hour hearing.
Those witnesses are Matthew Mirante, Sr., who notified the department that its sentencing calculations were incorrect; Wendy Stigall, a records program administration with the corrections department; Sue Schuler, an information technology specialist with the department and Ronda Larson, the assistant attorney general who advised the department in 2012.
Between 2002 and January, an estimated 3,200 inmates were released early due to miscalculations of their sentences. Two of those felons are now alleged to have killed people when they should have been behind bars.
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