Errors in hundreds of Colorado prison sentences, audit says

Published May 14, 2013

Associated Press

DENVER –  A new audit finds that hundreds of Colorado inmates may be serving incorrect sentences due to clerical errors.

The review is still ongoing but has already led prison officials to warn judges that 281 people might have been given sentences that are incorrect. That includes some people who have already left prison and are either on parole or in halfway houses.

Prison officials say judges have already adjusted 56 different sentences.

Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered the audit after it was revealed that a man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons director was released four years early because his sentence was incorrectly recorded by the courts.

There are still more than 2,000 cases awaiting review in the audit.

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Hundreds of cell doors simultaneously unlock at Maryland jail, but no escapees

Published April 28, 2013

FoxNews.com

A computer glitch at a Maryland prison made hundreds of jail cell doors simultaneously unlock – but not a single inmate escaped.

In two incidents on Saturday and Tuesday, a computer-controlled system in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, which allows officers to unlock all cells in case of a fire, malfunctioned, Fox 5 reports.

None of the 650 inmates at the jail ran out of their cells and there was no disturbance, authorities said.

However, police officers in the region were called to surround the building in case of any emergency.

Arthur Wallenstein, the county's director of corrections, told Fox 5 that all the jail cells were later manually locked within an hour of the Saturday incident, but technicians have not been able to figure out the source of the computer glitch.

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