Software glitch releases 3,200 US prisoners from jail

A software glitch has released 3,200 prisoners from jail early in the state of Washington in the US.

Offcials have said the former inmates will need to return to the facilities to finish serving their sentences.

The hiccup occurred when a system used for logging 'good behaviour credits' resulted in issuing early release orders for some of the criminals.

The issue was highlighted when a victim's family member found out an offender was going to be released early, so contacted the prison service to find out why.

The state failed to react fast enough and waited until a new IT boss for the Washington Department of Corrections (DoC) was appointed, who then ran an investigation into the seriousness of the glitch. The IT manager then alerted senior staff at the governor's office and action was taken.

It came to light that the problem had been happening for 13 years, meaning large volumes of prisoners were released before their sentences were complete. Statistics released by the DoC revealed many of the criminals were released 49 days earlier than they should have been, although one prisoner was released 600 days (a year and seven months) early.

"That this problem was allowed to continue for 13 years is deeply disappointing to me, totally unacceptable and, frankly, maddening," said Washington's governor Jay Inslee at a press conference.

The DoC hasn't said whether the inmates who were knowingly released early would be further punished for failing to alert authorities to the discharge errors.

It will now manually check prisoners files when they flagged for release by the system and the software will receive an update to ensure the problem doesn't happen again.

Washington's police service is now rounding up the wrongly-released prisoners so they can continue serving their sentences.