Computer errors cause release of 450 California inmates at "high risk for violence"

California prison officials have released about 450 inmates with "a high risk for violence" because of a computer system error, according to a report by the state's inspector general. Some 1,000 or more additional inmates with "a high risk of committing drug crimes, property crimes and other offenses" were also released because of the same error. They're all out on unsupervised parole, and no effort has been made to return any of them to lockup, or place them on supervised parole.

The news comes just two days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state's prisons are dangerously overcrowded, and upheld an earlier order that officials must find a way to reduce the 143,335-inmate population by roughly 33,000. From the Los Angeles Times:

Using the 15% error rate they found in their sample, investigators estimated that more than 450 violent inmates had been released during the first seven months of the program, the time period they reviewed. Prison officials have disputed the findings, saying they had corrected some of the computer problems discovered by the inspector general. The error rate is now 8%, the inspector general report says.

(...) Under the law that created non-revocable parole, inmates are excluded if they are gang members, have committed sex crimes or violent felonies or have been determined to pose a high risk to reoffend based on an assessment of their records behind bars.

That's where the problems begin, according to the inspector general. The computer program prison officials used to make that assessment does not access an inmate's disciplinary history. The program also relies on a state Department of Justice system that records arrests but is missing conviction information for nearly half of the state's 16.4 million arrest records, according to the inspector general report.

Computer errors let violent California prisoners go free (LA Times)

(Photo / REUTERS: Prisoners at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California are seen housed in a gymnasium due to overcrowding in this September 14, 2009 file photo. Like many states, California's spending on prisons has risen dramatically in recent years due to both tougher crime laws and more stringent requirements for inmate healthcare. What sets California apart is that it also spends a great deal on generous wage and benefit packages for its prison guards.)

• [Anonymous]

  Let everybody who’s in there for solely for possession of drugs out immediately. That ought to get rid of thousands of people who don’t really need to be locked up. The “war on drugs” is a war on the poor, locking them up for nothing.

• [jowlsey]

  Of course it was a computer error. It’s inconceivable to think that this was caused by incompetent bureaucrats.

  • [Jeremiah Cornelius]

    This was done deliberately. America is a prison state. More prisoners per-capita than any nation in history. Ever.

    Enjoy you “war on drugs”.

    The “mistaken” releases will cause a panic reaction, to halt further compliance, and create a bogus “public safety” concern. This will be used to advance the interests of the private prison-industrial complex, which already has a death-grip on state politics and appropriations, in their opposition to the Constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

    • [CatherineCC]

      Yup. Accident my ass.

    • [jowlsey]

      I was just trying to say that calling this a ‘computer error’ looks like a cop-out to me. I suspect the computer did exactly what it was designed to do. If that’s not what someone wanted / expected the computer to do, that’s not the computer’s fault. It’s the fault of those that use and manage it.

• [LabRat001]

  If it can’t be revoked how can it be parole?

• [Anonymous]

  >>Of course it was a computer error. It’s inconceivable to think that this was caused by incompetent bureaucrats.

  I see it being just as likely that it was caused by incompetent data entry staff or incompetent programmers.

• [Shart Tsung]

  Sounds like a great start for an action movie or superhero team-up comic.

• [Anonymous]

  Are humans involved anywhere in the process or did the computer open the cell doors too?

• [Anonymous]

  Yes, almost certainly a moth bridged circuits in the computer, causing these prisoners to be released. There’s no way a human programmer or operator could have typed in the wrong thing.

  I believe this moth or gnat must be identified. The public has a right to know! Cali residents should write the hollywood actor or multinational corporation that represents them in the California legislature immediately! Reckless insects should not be immune to the rule of law (regardless of any precedents set by Zsa Zsa Gabor, Sonny Bono or Carly Fiorina).

  Incidentally, the release of this news at this time was not in any way connected with the recent court ruling, and was never intended to sway public perception of the prison systems of California in any way. That is all.

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  So the prison system is using an ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ algorithm?

• [lknope]

  Hmm, why not release all the people found growing pot instead?

  • [diluded000]

    That was the point of the computer program discussed in the article: to keep the violent offenders locked up longer.

• [Anonymous]

  “For every error blamed on the computer, there are at least two human errors, one of which is blaming the error on the computer.”

  — a *nix fortune cookie

• [CatherineCC]

  “The computer program prison officials used to make that assessment does not access an inmate’s disciplinary history.

  The program also relies on a state Department of Justice system that records arrests but is missing conviction information for nearly half of the state’s 16.4 million arrest records, according to the inspector general report.”

  America uber alles.

  • [Gulliver]

    America uber alles.

    Technically it’s Amerika über alles.

• [g0d5m15t4k3]

  Isn’t there a movie where all of California is a prison state? Let’s just build a big ol wall and do that. Sounds reasonable.

• [MrJM]

  404 error: Inmate not found

  • [rsplatpc]

    10/10

• [mrclamo]

  Why does anyone even care? These violent people are obviously no threat. Grow up. We need that prison space to jail the REAL criminals: pot smokers.

• [Anonymous]

  This reminds me of the Juris Corpus project which aimed to accurately and efficiently sentence people algorithmically. http://fafafa.magicseth.com/corpus.html

• [travtastic]

  This is going to end up worse than that time we released hundreds of people from Guantanamo, and they went on crazy murder sprees.

  We need to just make every crime a capital offense. It’s the only way to keep the white women safe.

• [desiredusername]

  I would love to read a book about all of the worst computer errors. Come to think of it Wikipedia’s List of Software Bugs is a fairly interesting start. It looks like it needs an update though.

• [taj1f]

  Here, as everywhere, the real culprit is human overpopulation. There just too damn many homo sapiens to water and feed, to effectively educate, to gainfully employ, to accurately diagnose, to look after, to follow up on, and certainly WAAAAAAY too many to keep track of when they go awry.

• [Anonymous]

  No such thing as “computer error”

  • [desiredusername]

    Thanks for the correction.

• [calebcharles]

  Is this a variation on the false flag attack?

• [Anonymous]

  I think we need a rorschach quote here.

• [optuser]

  I know the constitution says you can’t deprive citizenship as punishment for a crime, but can we debate that?

  Is it cruel and unusual to tag violent murderers/rapists with a non-harmful radioactive isotope that is permanent?

  How long until we have pay-per-view RUNNING MAN to offset the costs of operating prisons?