REVscene Automotive Forum - Oops! Saskatchewan jail mistakenly releases another prisoner

THE CANADIAN PRESS
REGINA - Saskatchewan's minister of Corrections, Public Safety and Policing said he was "frustrated" Monday after learning that another prisoner has been mistakenly released from a provincial jail.

The ministry said that Steven Perry Burns was let out in error Sunday from the Saskatoon Correctional Centre - bringing to 11 the number of prisoners "incorrectly released" from custody since May 2006. More than half of those releases have taken place since April 2008.

"With the improper releases that we've had since forming government, I'm frustrated, absolutely," said Darryl Hickie.

In the latest incident, Burns was arrested after he allegedly failed to show up to serve a weekend sentence on an undisclosed conviction. Hickie said Burns was mistakenly freed because it was believed his weekend time was complete.

But the 24-year-old was supposed to remain in custody to face new charges of being unlawfully at large, breach of probation, driving while disqualified and possession of stolen property.

Hickie said ministry officials were at the corrections centre Monday to launch an investigation into what happened.

"We have to figure out how it involved the staff at the time and was it a computer error, was it paperwork, we're not sure yet," said Hickie.

"Right now I don't believe we have a broader problem. We take over 30,000 admissions per year so I will say one is too many, most definitely, and with the investigation that's going to be done in this case we're going to find where the human error occurred and do what we can to make sure this doesn't happen again."