By C1 Staff
LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — An uptick in offenders walking away from the Larimer County halfway house last year is being partly blamed on a computer glitch.
The Coloradoan reports that the glitch was informing offenders that they had failed a drug or alcohol test, which may have given them incentive to walk away from the program.
The bug was fixed the same day it was found, in November 2014.
About 5.6 offenders walked away from the facility in November last year; in 2013, the average was 4.6, and 4.3 the year before.
When the DOC noticed the uptick in walk-aways, they searched for a commonality between them and found none.
The director of the halfway house, Community Corrections, says that they try to present the house as a safe place for residents, where they are respected and treated before their release. The house isn’t a secure facility, and residents come and go depending on their required schedules.
The glitch is only one potential answer to why the offenders walked away; another said he couldn’t see an end to the fees and his incarceration and acted impulsively. Others may have known they’d been caught using a banned substance.