Since 2002, the Washington State Department of Corrections has given more than 3,000 prisoners early release. The number of inmates freed could go as high as 3,200.

“I’ve ordered immediate action to fix 13-year-old sentencing errors discovered at state prisons,” Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted on Tuesday.

The issue has to do with how good-behavior time was credited to an inmate’s sentence.

The Associated Press quotes authorities as saying a July 2002 state Supreme Court ruling required the Corrections Department to apply good-behavior credits earned in county jail to state prison sentences. However, the programming fix ended up giving prisoners with sentencing enhancements too much so-called good time credit.

Read the article “Computer Glitch Allows 3,000 Inmates Early Release in Washington State” on npr.org.