Whistleblowers from within the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) shared that "hundreds" of Arizona inmates are being kept behind bars despite their eligibility for release under an Arizona law due to a software bug plaguing the inmate software.
The software bug has been confirmed by the ADC.
Early Release Arizona Law Explained
In a report by Gizmodo, under an Arizona state law, people who have been convicted of drug-related crimes can earn early release, aiming to help them get back on their feet.
The early release program was first introduced in 2019 under the Arizona Senate Bill 1310 and was also signed the same year, making it law and effective as soon as possible, stating that prison convicts of certain drug-related charges only need to serve 70% of their sentences, as long as they are actively joining in self-improvement programs such high-school diploma programs, or drug treatments that are being offered by the state.
Unfortunately, the law is apparently being ignored due to a flaw in the state's inmate software, which has become incapable of factoring in the inmates' early release credits, keeping many of them behind bars for much longer.
The news was initially reported by KJZZ, an NPR member station.
Prolonged Sentences Due to Software Bug?
According to the Phoenix-area radio station, whistleblowers from the ADC said that the department is trying to calculate the credits manually, but this has significantly slowed down the process.
With the law, around 7,000 individuals may have been eligible for release back in 2019, as per a past article by the Arizona Mirror.
However, the bug that is now plaguing the software called the Arizona Correctional Information system (ACIS) has made it currently impossible to identify who has been qualified for release under the law, based on the reports of unnamed state employees who the KJZZ radio station granted anonymity.
In response to the report, the ADC has indeed confirmed to Gizmodo that the ACIS software is indeed bugged, but they have denied that any of the inmates have prolonged sentences due to the issue and that employees are accurately performing the calculations for these thousands of inmates, albeit manually.
"Release eligibility data is constantly monitored and [Arizona Department of Corrections] updates the calculation multiple times daily to ensure appropriate release times are calculated and acted upon," an ADC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Bug Confirmed, But Not Affecting Release Dates
Furthermore, the spokesperson said that aside from automated calculations, it is also part of the department's standard practice to manually re-check the data to verify and certify the release dates.
"ADCRR has a record of accurate sentence calculations based on our current manual method. This has been the subject of litigation in the past and our method has been consistently upheld by Arizona courts," they said.
"We can read CNN, Fox, local ABC news, but not KJZZ all of a sudden" pic.twitter.com/wNXYCrLqxa
After the news has been reported, criminal justice reporter Jimmy Jenkins, who first broke the story, has tweeted an update, saying that the KJZZ website has been blocked for all Arizona Department of Corrections employees.
The ACIS is a customized version of the Mi-Case Offender Management System software, which is developed by Business & Decision North America (BNDNA).
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
