Nearly 200 Inmates Accidentally Released Due to 'Embarrassing' Glitch

Between 180 and 200 inmates in Harris County, Texas, were summarily released because of a computer system issue, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

According to the sheriff's office, a computer system went down on Thursday, March 24, and the problem persisted through the weekend, resulting in the release of some inmates from the joint processing center.

Andy Kahan, victim services director for Crime Stoppers of Houston, explained to KPRC 2 that what caused the general release of so many people is the requirement that a defendant receives a probable cause hearing by 24 hours for a misdemeanor or 48 hours for a felony after arrest.

"That person basically said 'Hey, we just cut loose close to 300 people because they weren't given their probable cause hearings in due time,'" Kahan told KPRC 2.

He called the incident "a huge embarrassment."

"I was shocked," Kahan told Newsweek. "I've been involved in the criminal justice system for 30 years and I've never seen anything like this."

"Immediately red flags went up," he adds. "But the bottom line is, I was just dumbfounded that there was no back-up plan for a contingency, in case of a 'glitch' in the computer system. I can't fathom there were no alternatives other than outright release."

The system was down between March 24 and March 26. The crash happened during a system update, according to ABC13. During the hours the system wasn't working, data needed to approve or reject charges against an arrested person wasn't filed properly.

When hundreds of defendants, after sitting for hours in the processing center didn't see a magistrate within 48 hours, they were released through a general order by a judge.

It is unclear yet how many defendants have been released, but some—including FOX— estimate the number of people released could be around 300.

Kahan told FOX that ​​all defendants released were let go without any conditions. "There's no ankle monitors, there's no GPS, there's no distance requirements, and we don't know who these offenders are," Kahan said.

ABC13 said they were able to obtain a report on the list of those released and say that it included people accused of crimes such as indecent exposure, driving while intoxicated and racing. Most defendants were non-violent, ABC13 reported, but a dozen had a criminal history including violent crimes.

Harris County's District Attorney wrote a letter to law enforcement agencies, according to ABC13, and told them the system failure was a threat to public safety. The DA asked that all defendants be re-arrested.

"Now we have to spend more manpower and resources basically to bring the defendants back in the system that we already had in the system," Kahan said.

"The latest Harris County Universal Services' computer-system failure has the full attention of the district attorney, police chief and sheriff because it resulted in the temporary release of accused criminals," read a statement circulated by Dane Schiller, spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

"The safety of the public, security of our criminal justice system and efficiency of our courts demand that the county give Universal Services the resources to fix this and ensure it never happens again."

Update 3/31/22, 1.10 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to add more comments by Andy Kahan.