New system will prevent & catch early releases

SANTA FE (KRQE) - There have been a number of inmates mistakenly released early this year, which has prompted the Department of Corrections to develop a new system.

The system is being used not only to prevent current inmates from being released early but also to track down past inmates that are not supposed to be out.

Department of Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said in the past the system that was in place was driven based on priority for bed space. Marcantel says that’s not longer going to fly under his watch.

In the year Marcantel has been in charge, it’s become clear that some inmates were getting out too soon.

“This has to be one of the most fluid extraordinarily complex systems or task of trying to determine exact sentencing dates,” Marcantel told KRQE News 13.

Time serviced before trial and good time can reduce a sentence, while behaving badly behind cars can add time. Release calculations were being handles be different staff members at different prisons around the state and it was creating a mess.

Now Marcantel is spending $400,000 to reshuffle his staff to review about 25,000 inmates who have been released over the past six years.

The last audit took place six years ago.

The audit will start with every inmate released in the past two years, then all violent criminals, gang members and sex offenders going back six years.

“We want to make sure that we are going after those offenders who we should be most concerned about,” Marcantel said.

The audit is expected to take until April, at the earliest. Marcantel is confident the new system will keep other current inmates from getting out before they’re supposed to.

“We are not going to release people on weekends, release people on holidays, release people after we have our subject matter experts gone for the day because we got to be in a hurry for bed space,” Marcantel said.

Marcantel said if they do find an inmate who was released early but has stayed out of trouble, has a job and is supporting his family Corrections will consider other options outside of putting him back in prison.