Washington prison officials were still looking Monday for four ex-convicts who were released from community supervision too early because of a miscalculation in how large a threat they pose to the community.

All four were released to King County, said Armando Mendoza, southwest regional administrator for community corrections for the state Department of Corrections.

Prison officials last week thought they had given early releases to as many as 75 inmates who had been under the supervision of community corrections officers.

Corrections Department spokesman Chad Lewis said it turned out that only eight of the 75 had been released too early. Four of the eight were located last week. The other four remain at large.

In August, prison officials started using a new method to assess how likely offenders are to commit new crimes after their release. Inmates are given scores, based on their criminal history, and then given a classification that determines how closely they should be watched after they get out of prison.

That new assessment tool was used to classify 15,000 inmates, Lewis said. The new tool failed to include one component, which resulted in scores that were too low.

“Of the 75, 67 actually didn’t need to be under supervision after all,” Lewis said. “Even with the higher scores, they did not meet the criteria for supervision.”

Mendoza said his staff plans to send community corrections officers to the last known address of the remaining four offenders to make contact. Failing that, they will send certified letters and will notify local law enforcement to be on the lookout for the four and to tell them to report to the Department of Corrections if they are found. Department officials also plan to contact the offenders’ lawyers to get word to them that they must continue to report, he said.

Lewis said that after recalculating scores for the 15,000 offenders who were assessed with the faulty formula, 58 percent were reclassified to require more stringent supervision.

The original assessments were done between Aug. 4 and Oct. 15.

Most of the offenders who are placed on community supervision are released from county jails, not prisons, Lewis said.

None of the offenders still at large is a sex offender, he said. All four were jailed for nonviolent offenses, he said.

Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436

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