The Olympian
OLYMPIA, Wash. — An outside investigation ordered by Gov. Jay Inslee has found a raft of problems at the Department of Corrections. The agency let a computer glitch in 2002 go unresolved for 13 years, allowing at least 2,800 offenders to be set free before their release dates.
A few of the state employees who bore some responsibility for failing to fix a problem that was discovered in 2012 have announced their resignations or no longer work for government. Inslee, a Democrat under fire from Republicans in an election year, indicated last week that personnel actions to hold others accountable for the scandal were in the works.
Clearly the problems at DOC run deeper than just a failure to fix one computer problem that miscalculated the dates when certain offenders were supposed to be released.
That one software problem alone caused great harm. Two offenders now stand accused of killing two people when they were still supposed to be behind bars.
The investigation by two retired federal prosecutors, whom Inslee hired in December, found incompetence. Their report shows there are cultural problems at the agency, including a failure to set priorities for essential information technology work.
The agency had a queue of 60 competing IT issues, according to one recent newspaper report. Yet top technology officials in the agency appeared to have no knowledge of the early release problem, which was the most dangerous technology issue at the agency. Line staffers did not factor in the risk to public safety when deciding which projects should be done first.
There also was a faulty legal opinion given by an assistant attorney general, Ronda Larson, to low-ranking DOC staffers. Larson believed the early release problem, which was supposed to be fixed soon by a software repair, was not urgent enough to require recalculations of sentences by hand — even though hand calculating was standard procedure in such cases. Larson’s advice never made it to the Corrections secretary at the time, Bernie Warner, who since left the agency.
Larson is resigning.
Former assistant Corrections secretary Denise Doty, who has been described as the highest ranking DOC official who knew of the problem, left Corrections for a job in Inslee’s budget office before the scandal broke; she resigned her budget post recently.
Unconvinced that Inslee and his team would get to the bottom of issues or hold staff accountable, Senate Republicans launched their own probe, which could cost taxpayers $125,000. The GOP probe verified that Inslee, Warner and Dan Pacholke, the replacement corrections secretary who also is leaving, did not know about the early-release problem until it was brought to their attention in mid-December last year.
The software was fixed in January, but a major clean-up needs to be done at DOC.
In their report to Inslee, investigators Carl Blackstone and Robert Westinghouse said that Corrections management displayed incompetence but not malice in failing to fix systemic problems with information technology programs.
They investigators also described “an inexplicable failure both on an institutional and individual level to appreciate the fact that releasing even one inmate early, let alone thousands, undermined the core mission of the Department of Corrections, which is to protect the public.”
Blackstone and Westinghouse sent Inslee about a dozen recommendations for the Attorney General’s office and DOC. They said AG legal advice given to DOC needs to be reviewed by AG supervisors. They also recommend an outside monitor for DOC’s restructuring of its IT services; there are other recommendations to ensure that someone outside the IT unit is setting priorities for fixing systemic IT problems.
Investigators also recommended having more than one agency programmer available to fix software problems and an ombudsman for the agency to ensure that all staff in the agency are willing to bring problems to light. In this case, lower level workers knew of the early-release problem in 2012, but nothing was done despite repeated requests.
To reverse the obvious cultural failures at DOC will take more than Band-Aids and tartly worded news announcements from critics.
Inslee and DOC must hold individuals accountable for their failures. The governor also must find leadership willing to take the reins of a damaged agency and improve its responsiveness to challenges — from the ground up.
To do that well, Inslee may need help from his political adversaries in the Senate, who should suggest improvements and be willing to provide funds as needed. To simply bang away at the agency for its failures won’t help.
As DOC so cavalierly reminded us, public safety is at stake.
To reverse the obvious cultural failures at DOC will take more than Band-Aids and tartly worded news announcements from critics.
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