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Prison inmate spots county's math error
BREMERTON, Wash., -- Officials in a Washington county say they are rewriting their policy for awarding "good time" to prison inmates after a prisoner discovered a math error.
Robert "Doug" Pierce, 48, who was jailed in December for possession of methamphetamine and earned his GED behind bars, said he wound up serving 10 extra days in jail because Kitsap County did not correctly take his time served into account when calculating his good time, the time taken off his sentence for good behavior, the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton reported Wednesday.
Pierce said he was eligible for 33 percent of his time to be taken off, the maximum allowed by the state, but the days were calculated incorrectly because his time served was not taken into account. He caught the 35-day mistake but not soon enough to get 10 days more off for finding housing and having his affairs are in order before his release date, the newspaper said.
Ned Newlin, the county's corrections chief, said the policy will be completely rewritten to address the problem. The policy change could affect the sentences of many prisoners in the county.
"Our intention is to be transparent," Newlin said. "We want to do it right."
Newlin said officials are also reviewing the past three years worth of cases to seek out similar errors.
BREMERTON, Wash., -- Officials in a Washington county say they are rewriting their policy for awarding "good time" to prison inmates after a prisoner discovered a math error.
Robert "Doug" Pierce, 48, who was jailed in December for possession of methamphetamine and earned his GED behind bars, said he wound up serving 10 extra days in jail because Kitsap County did not correctly take his time served into account when calculating his good time, the time taken off his sentence for good behavior, the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton reported Wednesday.
Pierce said he was eligible for 33 percent of his time to be taken off, the maximum allowed by the state, but the days were calculated incorrectly because his time served was not taken into account. He caught the 35-day mistake but not soon enough to get 10 days more off for finding housing and having his affairs are in order before his release date, the newspaper said.
Ned Newlin, the county's corrections chief, said the policy will be completely rewritten to address the problem. The policy change could affect the sentences of many prisoners in the county.
"Our intention is to be transparent," Newlin said. "We want to do it right."
Newlin said officials are also reviewing the past three years worth of cases to seek out similar errors.
